Projectionist: Start with LifewithGod-HighDefMP4.mp4
We’re so glad you are joining with us today whether in the auditorium or on line. You couldn’t have picked a better time to join us because we are in the third part of a series entitled Excess Baggage.
We all know how unmanageable excess baggage can be physically when we are dealing with actual baggage, or emotionally when we are dealing with the junk we carry into our lives from the past. Where we have focused our attention in this series is excess baggage in the spiritual area of life—those things that we add to our belief systems that seem to make sense when we are packing them, but are unnecessary, uncalled for needless extras that we smuggle into our faith from past experiences or maybe from bad teaching or more than likely from a habit or reason that maybe at one time made a lot of sense, but then became an add on that now just makes our lives burdensome.
You may have heard the story of the family gathering, where the momma was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the family. Her young daughter was watching her with rapt attention and helping where she could. As the mom prepared the ham for the occasion, she began by cutting off the ends of the ham. The daughter, curious asked her mother why she cut off the ends of the ham, to which her mother replied, “Well, honey, I do that because my mother did it.”
“Why momma?” her daughter persisted. “I don’t know honey, but grandma is setting the table, why don’t you go into the dining room and ask her?”
The little girl cheerfully left her seat, went into the dining room and inquired of her grandmother, “Grandma, why did you cut off the ends of your ham?” To which the grandmother replied, “Well, Sally, I cut off the ends of my ham because that is what my mother always did.”
“But why?” Sally persisted. “Well honey, I don’t really know. My mother, your great-grandmother is sitting in the living room, why don’t we both go in and ask her?”
The pair, arriving in the living room asked great-grandma their burning question, “Great grandma, why do we cut off the ends of the ham before cooking it?” To which great-grandma now responded, “Well, honey, the reason I cut off the ends of my ham before I cooked it was so that it would fit in my pan! I don’t know why your mother does it.”
A lot of our cherished traditions are like that ham story. At one time there may have been a purpose for it, and it may have been a good reason. But we continue to carry these once meaningful practices into our current situations and over the years these purposeful and meaningful practices from the past have built up into excess spiritual baggage in our present, making our Christian lives unwieldy (that means not easily handled, managed or used) to us and unnecessarily complicated to those who are considering Christ.
In the church the struggle began when Gentiles, non-Jewish people, with no background in the Jewish laws or traditions began coming to the faith. Certain Christians wanted to make sure those who were placing their faith in Christ were schooled in and adhered to the Old Testament Laws.
The issue was first broached when Peter was called by God to go and present the message of Christ to a Roman centurion named Cornelius. Peter was understandably uncomfortable with that—it went totally against everything he believed. But, despite being uncomfortable with it, he was obedient to the call and God did a marvelous work despite the fact that those in the audience didn’t have a clue about what the Jewish Scriptures taught; despite the fact that they didn’t even know let alone conform to the Law of Moses.
The perceived problem grew when non-Jewish people at Antioch began putting their faith not in the Jewish Scriptures, not in “The Bible,” (he Bible didn’t exist until late in the fourth century and early in the fifth when a monk by the name of Jerome put what we know as the Old and New Testament in one volume known as the Vulgate. These early Gentile believers didn’t have any Sacred Writings, they were putting their faith in the resurrected Christ!
This created a problem for those who grew up cutting off the ends of their proverbial ham. “We’ve always done it this way and if they want to join us, they need to do it this way!” And we saw that the decision of the church leaders—James, the brother of Jesus, Peter, Paul and the other Apostles agreed that with Christ we had entered a new era of faith and the Old Testament Laws were no longer binding upon the people of God.
Last week we were reminded from the book of Galatians that the operative word for those who place their faith in Christ is freedom. We are free from the Old Testament Law and we will discover today we are also free from the traditions of men that may sound reasonable, but ultimately, according to the Apostle Paul, are really detrimental (harmful) to a growing relationship with Christ.
This morning we are in the book of Colossians. This is a letter Paul writes to a group of churches in Asia Minor, the main church being in the city of Colosee. This church we believe was founded by a friend of Paul by the name of Epaphras. Paul never visited this church as far as we know. His letter to this church is written while he is in prison at Rome, so it is written around 60 AD. Which means it was written 10 after the decision was made not to add the excess baggage of Jewish Law on the Gentile Converts.
I point this out because, although the decision by the leaders had been made and published, there were still those in the church who disagreed with the decision. “If great-grandma had to cut the ends off the ham, we need to as well!” “We need to maintain our distinctives!” “We need to protect the purity of the church and get people following our God-given rules and regulations.”
The group Paul was fighting with last week were those who wanted a mix and match faith—a little bit of Moses, a little bit of Jesus. They taught “If you are a person of faith it only makes sense for you to follow the rules which were handed down to us by God.”
In this letter written to the church of Colosee and her sister churches in the area, this group of “back to the Law” Jewish believers are joined by Gentile believers who are intent on importing some of the teachings from their past into the church. Paul warns these early believers and us about the dangers of mixing and matching Christianity with anything else.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, NIV84). The Message renders this verse, “Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, The Message)
“See to it that no one takes you captive,” is “Beware!” Be careful; be vigilant. Because if you’re not someone is going to take you prisoner and make you their captive. Through “hollow and deceptive philosophy.” Paul is not talking against true philosophy and reasoning, he has in view here a vain, empty, worldview “which depends on human traditions.” That is, it follows man made traditions that disguise themselves as the truth of God. Jesus, in condemning those who considered themselves the very standard of religious righteousness, said, “They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.” (Matthew 15:9, The Message) .
The main group Paul has in mind here are a group of early heretics (a heretic is someone who departs from an accepted teaching) called “gnostics.” Gnostics were a group of Gentile believers who were trying to marry Greek mysticism with Christian doctrine. They taught that they held the deeper secrets of the faith, and if you wanted to go deeper in your faith, they were the ones who could tell you how. Warren Wiersbe says, “The false teachers did not go out and win (non Christians), (any) more than the cultists do today. They “kidnapped” converts from churches! Most of the people . . . who are members of antichristian cults were at one time associated with a Christian church of one denomination or another.
“How is it possible for false teachers to capture people? The answer is simple: These “captives” are ignorant of the truths of the Word of God. They become fascinated by the philosophy and empty delusion of the false teachers . . . When a person does not know the doctrines of the Christian faith, he can easily be captured by false religions.”
The three key ingredients of this false teaching are (1) they begin with human traditions disguising themselves as truths of God, 2) they are focused on outward compliance to worldly standards rather than on (3) Christ Himself. Put another way it is always, Christ plus something else. You have any one of those three, and you have been taken captive by the enemy.
Now, skip down to verse 10 just for a minute. I want to talk to those of you who are Christian. If you are not a Christ-follower, I think this one verse should be a strong incentive for you to consider committing yourself to Jesus. If you are a Christ follower, this is a truth you need to consider and apply to your life. “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:10, NLT). Let that sink in. You are complete in Christ. There is no caste system in Christianity; no second-class citizens despite what some teach and perhaps others secretly feel. If you stand in Jesus, if your full faith is in Him and not in your own merits; your works; your efforts; then in the sight of God you are complete—perfect—not in your subsequent behavior but by virtue of your union with Christ. You were considered and made complete and your conversion to Christ, not you are becoming complete as you conform to certain rules, regulations, traditions, or laws. Paul goes on to say that. “When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.” (Colossians 2:11, NLT). You didn’t have to have physical surgery to come to faith, but when you put your faith in Christ, God performed a marvelous spiritual surgery—he removed your sinful nature! So, I have to pause here and challenge a long -standing Christian tradition—the one that indicates that we have two natures—a new nature and an old nature. I don’t see that in this verse. This verse indicates that our old nature, our sinful nature was removed by virtue of our placing our faith in Christ Jesus. I don’t see how you can read this any other way—unless you read it through the filter of human tradition rather than the filter of revealed truth. In fact, the next verse seems to add weight to Paul’s argument, “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12, NLT).
Then he says, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,” (Colossians 2:13, NIV84). That was then; this is now—you are complete in Christ (v.10), forgiven on all your sins—past, present and future. More than that, “having canceled the written code . . .” This is key to what we have been saying about Old Testament Law these past few weeks. Don’t overlook the importance of that phrase “the written Code,” The Greek here is “the hand written code.” What part of the Mosaic Law was handwritten by God? You church people know the answer to this: the Ten Commandments. Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is leaving no wiggle-room here—he says plainly, “The Ten Commandments have been canceled along with “with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14, NIV84). The Law stood against us and opposed us because the Law was like a taskmaster bidding us to do something that it neither gave us the inclination in our hearts nor the power in our hands to do! In Romans 7 Paul tells us that God’s Law is good, so don’t step off into wrong territory there, but that God’s good Law could not then, nor can it now save us! Only Jesus can do that!
Since He has done that, Paul goes on to say, “So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.” (Colossians 2:16, NLT). We will talk a little more about this next week.
Paul is dealing here both with the “we got to get back to the Old Testament Law” group and the Greek groups which emphasized asceticism. Ascetism is the belief that we can gain spiritual standing through spiritual discipline and strict self-denial. They had both groups in Colosee and we still have both groups today.
Paul says of all such earthly traditions, “For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.” (Colossians 2:17, NLT).
Sometimes when I ride my bicycle, if the sun is right, I’ll be riding along and suddenly be startled by the shadow of a passing vehicle. The shadow is no danger to me—the vehicle itself could be a very real danger to me. The shadow in that case is a warning to stay alert and now sway the wrong way!
The Old Testament Laws were a shadow, portraying a reality that was to come. Christ is that reality. That is why the writer of Hebrews says, “The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.” (Hebrews 10:1, NLT).
But you will recall that we said Paul is dealing with two different groups who seek to rob the believer of freedom and make them captives to their own rules. Enter the Gnostics: “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” (Colossians 2:18, NIV84).
This word “false humility” is a Greek word that pictures long clothing; a style of dress that distinguishes you. Paul is challenging teachings that began with the Greek—“I have an inside track on spirituality”—some believers others false teachers disguising as believers. So, let’s be clear on this because it applies in so many ways today.
Some who practice the “false humility” insist on dressing a certain way or wearing your hair a certain way. I grew up in that. The tradition was long sleeves/long, ankle length dresses for women, and slacks, no jeans, for men. The injunction of Paul that is was “a shame for men to have long hair,” was interpreted to mean all spiritual men had World War II buzz cuts. Jesus would have been out of luck.
For others this “false humility” shows itself “in the worship of angels.” Now, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to our modern ears, so let me bring it up to date. The idea here is that God was and is too holy for us to approach him directly. Therefore, proper procedure for those who know their place is to go through an intermediary—an angel, a saint or even Mary herself, but you can’t go directly to God—you need help. Please note, Paul plainly says, this is false, not true humility. It is something they do for show not some special secret they know. Paul says clearly that such actions come not from the Father but from people who are, in fact, unspiritual and unfamiliar with God’s truth!
This brings us to the difficult phrase “Do not let anyone….disqualify you for the prize”. That is not what you may think. Paul here is speaking from the stand-point of these false teachers—they think they are going to have a voice in who gets rewarded and who doesn’t and they were using bullying tactics on these new believers. He is not talking about our salvation, but he is warning against those who take it upon themselves to act as judge and jury as to what is and what isn’t “Christian.” We will we this next week, but he is saying in effect you or I don’t get to judge God’s servants. And to those who could be misled by those who are acting this way, Paul is warning us to not let these false umpires get us off track.
I like the way Greek Scholar Kenneth Wuest translates the early part of this verse: “Let no one judge you or declare you unworthy of a reward (that is what is meant by “disqualify you from the prize), taking delight in a self-imposed humility and a worship of angels, scrutinizing minutely the things he has seen, being futilely puffed up by the mind of the flesh and not holding fast to the head. . . .” (Colossians 2:18a, Wuest Translation)
One other warning here, notice that Paul says that these unspiritual people “go into great detail about what he or she has seen.” In other words, they are claiming visions and special revelations from God to justify what they want to believe or teach.
Last week I saw an example of this from a lady who claimed that “God came to her and told her, ‘I made you a lesbian because that is how I want you to live.’” What do you do with that? I’ll tell you: recognize that for what it is, a demonic deception! God’s will is never going to contradict God’s Word! If you or someone you know claims some special revelation from God either through a dream, a vision, or the claim that ‘God told them,’ be sure of this: if it contradicts what God has revealed to us in His written revelation—we call it the Bible today—it is not of God!
In fact, Paul writes, “and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.” (Colossians 2:19, NLT). The picture of the body here is perfect. Loose connection with your head, and the body can’t function or grow. Lose connection with Christ because you have bought into rules, regulations, traditions and Laws, and you cease to grow spiritually, despite what you may appear to be on the outside. It’s like a chicken whose head has been severed. That body may run around headless and it looks for all intents and purposes alive, but as soon as the head is removed, that body is dead—it just doesn’t know it yet.
So, wrapping this up let me give you the final four verses from the Message Translation, “So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.” (Colossians 2:20–23, The Message).
Where have you made Christianity unnecessarily complicated and unnecessarily resistible? You know the truth, but you keep adding to the truth; keep going back and reasoning, “Yes, but” and then you fill in that but with some necessary tradition that you think is something you must do? Where have you allowed some falsely pious believer to bully you into compliance with some reasonable sounding argument as to why the Old Testament is still a requirement for those who claim to follow Christ? Let it go! You’ll be glad you did and I suspect that once you are, you will find yourself drawing people to the Savior rather than driving them from Him.
Let me pray for us.
