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.
.02) It was also a problem of meat rather in someone’s home or in the meat market.
.021) What if the meat had been offered as a sacrifice to a pagan god?
.022) That may seem like a strange question to us but it was a real issue of faith in the first century.
.0221) When sacrifices were made often only a portion of the animal was used in the sacrifice and the rest was sold.
.03) It was a matter of such significance that some Christians were losing their faith because of the issue.
.031) Paul even had to warn the stronger Christians to bear with those of weaker faith so as not to destroy their faith in Christ over the matter of food.
cb.) Religious festivals.
cba.) Jewish law required the males to assemble at Jerusalem three times a year for the religious feasts.
cbb.) This was another part of the law that was brought to an end when Jesus went to the cross.
.01) There was no longer this obligation in worship to do this.
.011) Jewish worshippers had trouble with this because it was part of their religious heritage.
cc.) New Moon celebration.
cca.) The Jews had new moon observances.
ccb.) On the New Moon each month the Jews were to offer a sacrifice of a two bulls, a ram, and six male lambs a year old without defect. (Numbers 28:11)
ccc.) The death of Jesus on the cross met the requirements of God for sacrifice.
.01) Because of the blood of Christ spilled at Calvary the redemption cost of sin had once and for all been paid in full.
cd.) Sabbath Days
cda.) The Sabbath Day regulations were also nailed to the cross.
cdb.) Amos prophesied that God would do something spectacular with the sun in the middle of the day.
.01) Amos 8:9
.02) When Jesus went to the cross that prophecy was fulfilled.
cdc.) Just as Amos had prophesied it became dark in the middle of the day.
.01) The day that Jesus died was on Friday.
.02) Normally on Friday the Sabbath would begin when the sun sat around 6:00 p.m.
(or at whatever time the sun would go down).
cdd.) At noon on that day God changed the schedule of the sun in order to prematurely bring the Sabbath.
cde.) Later that day when Jesus died, He declared with authority: “It is finished.”
.01) When Jesus bowed his head in death, the sun again begin to shine as a symbolic act of God that the darkness and the Sabbath were both over.
cdf.) This world had entered into a new day, or a new era.
.01) At that moment God had summoned this world into the era of grace through Jesus Christ.
.02) Sadly, a few decades after this as Paul wrote to the Church at Colossae, many were still observing the Sabbath, and all other aspects of Judaism.
.021) Even today, many Jews and others have not moved beyond this.
.03) Regardless if people still follow it today or not, it is something which was nailed to the cross.
D.) All these things were shadows of the Light, but not the Light itself.
da.) The reality of the Light is Jesus.
2.) Jesus is the life of the world.
A.) There are many things that are not the Life:
aa.) The Jewish system is not the Life.
aaa.) It showed man a sinner, that sacrifices were needed to atone for sin, and that no earthly sacrifice was adequate for our sins.
aab.) By giving us an awareness of these things, the law pointed us to Christ as the only acceptable sacrifice before God.
.01) In that way, the Jewish system pointed us to Christ, and life, but the system itself was not the life.
ab.) False humility does not bring life.
aba.) It is unclear what this false humility is, but the fact that it is given in the context of angel worship points us to that as a logical explanation to its meaning.
abb.) It is the idea that man humbled in the presence of God feels inadequate to come before God bows before angels, who like man are beings that have been created and therefore not worthy of worship.
ac.) The Worship of angels does not bring life.
aca.) Colossians 2:18
acb.) I am not aware of angel worship among the Jewish people, but the fact that Paul mentions it suggests that it must have been a problem among some of his day.
acc.) Certainly today there are people who look for angels, and worship them.
.01) In regards to this Paul warns against this practice.
.02) The Apostle John in error bowed to worship an angel and was quickly rebuked by the angel for his action.
.021) It does not matter if it is an angel, a saint living or dead, or any other part or being of creation. Scripture warns they are not to be worshipped.
.022) God’s Word makes it very clear that He is the only one worthy of worship.
.023) To do otherwise is to dishonour God, and to be involved in idolatry.
ad.) Experience and feelings do not bring life.
ada.) Colossians 2:18b.
adb.) Again, this is an area that Paul addresses.
adc.) So many times I have had people tell me that they are judging a matter on the basis of their experiences and their feelings.
.01) On more than one occasion I have heard people put personal experience and feelings on a higher level of authority than the written and inspired Word of God.
.02) Paul makes it clear that such personal experience does not bring us life.
.021) The Apostle Paul makes it very clear there is only one who can bring life.
3.) Jesus alone is the Life.
A.) It is not Jesus and Moses.
B.) It is not Jesus and any other system.
C.) Jesus and Jesus alone is the source of life.
ca.) Jesus himself made that very clear: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life no man comes to the Father but through me.”
caa.) Jesus is the exclusive only way of life.
.01) God had exalted Jesus to the place that is higher than all others. He is given the title “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords”
.02) Jesus does not share that position with any other.
cab.) When Paul was writing there were Christians in great danger of leaving Christ completely or by adding Judaism to the Christian faith as the way of life.
cb.) To show the danger of such a decision Paul says to picture a human body without a head.
cba.) Colossians 2:19
cbb.) Paul gives us a very powerful picture.
cbc.) In the physical realm we know it is an impossibility for a body to be alive without a head attached to it.
cbc.) Just as the physical body needs to be attached to the head in order for there to be life the same is true in the spiritual being.
.01) For us to be alive spiritually we must be connected to Jesus Christ who is our head.
.02) We must be connected to Him and to Him only.
.021) It is only then we can have life and growth in our spiritual walk.
CONCLUSION:
1.) Like the Jews of old, we must each day choose the life we will live.
2.) The best choice to make is always a life lived in the Light and the life of Jesus Christ.
3.) May that be the choice we will make not only today, but each day of our lives.
