Life Lived In The Shadows Or In The Light Series

LIFE LIVED IN THE SHADOWS OR THE LIGHT

Colossians 2:16-23

Greenmount and O’Leary Churches of Christ January 8, 2017

Audio Link: http://chirb.it/b17f2L

LIFE LIVED IN THE SHADOWS OR THE LIGHT

Colossians 2:16-23

Greenmount and O’Leary Churches of Christ January 8, 2017

January 15, 2017 (Church cancelled on 8th. for snow storm)

INTRODUCTION:

1.) Where and How do you want to live your life?

A.) We can choose to live our lives as bugs under the mud, or we can choose to live as a plant that rises above the ground and reaches for the heavens.

B.) The choices of life we will make will determine if we will live in the darkness of the world or in the light and Life of Jesus Christ.

2.) Life is something that is very wonderful and beautiful if it is truly lived to its fullest.

3.) As Christians we have the joy of living our lives to the fullest because we can live in the light and Life of Jesus Christ.

4.) As we come to our passage of Scripture today we are looking at some Christians who had come to experience the Light of Christ, and through that to come to life, yet were being enticed back into the darkness apart from Christ.

5.) This morning I want us to look at some points Paul gives to encourage those Christians to be true to Christ.

I) THE OLD COVENANT WAS MERELY A SHADOW

1.) The Old covenant had been nailed to the cross.

A.) You will recall when we last were looking at Colossians before our Christmas break from this series I spoke on the law being nailed to the cross.

aa.) Colossians 2:13b.-14

B.) To refresh you on that description Paul had used words for a debt that had been paid off.

ba.) When your debt had been paid in full, the creditor would state that on the contract and nail it either to the doorpost of your house or in a public place to testify that your debt had been paid in full.

bb.) That is what Jesus did to the Old Covenant when he was nailed to the cross.

bba.) The result of that is that:

2.) The Old Covenant can no longer judge us.

A.) As Christians, we can rejoice that the Old covenant has been nailed to the cross.

aa.) The law is no longer able to condemn us because Jesus Christ has given us freedom and victory from the law.

ab.) Even as Paul was writing many of the Jews had rejected Christ, and as a result were living without the knowledge of this freedom which Christ gives.

ac.) Paul reminds them:

3.) The Old Covenant was a shadow of things to come.

A.) as a shadow, it was not the reality and fullness of God’s hope and salvation for man.

aa.) It was merely the reflection of the Light of Christ that would come into this world.

bb.) Even in the Old Testament era, there were glimpses of the light of Christ showing through for the people.

ba.) The shadow disappeared when the fullness of the Light of Christ came into this world.

baa.) The glory of this light was the death and resurrection of Christ.

II) THE REALITY IS IN THE LIGHT NOT THE SHADOWS.

1.) Jesus is the Light of the World.

A.) Even as Paul wrote to the Colossians the Light of Christ was shining in this dark world.

aa.) When Jesus was on this earth, He declared: “I am the Light of the World.”

ab.) These Christians were some of the first generations of those who had the privilege tocompletely walk in the Light of Christ.

ac.) It completely bewilders me having come to Christ these Christians would be considering going back to Judaism.

ad.) I suppose it should not be a surprise to me for even today there are those who have come to Christ who fall back into the world.

ada.) That should serve as a caution to us as well.

.01) Even today, Satan presents us with temptations and excuses that can lead us from Christ if we will allow him to do so.

B.) Our Scripture text speaks of many areas in which the Jews were trying to reclaim the Colossian Christians into Judaism:

ca.) What they ate or drank.

cb.) Today in our culture, we have difficulty to understand on the issue of food and drink.

cba.) This was not the case in the first century.

cbb.) Jewish Christians of the first century had faith issues over food.

.01) There was the issue of clean andunclean foods.

.011) Jewish Christians had trouble eating food that the Old Testament Law had labelled as unclean.

.012) For many of them it was not just a dietary matter, but a matter of their faith.