May 18, 2003 Colossians 2:13-19
“Shadow or substance”
INTRODUCTION
The month of May is known for at least three things. It is known for flowers – “April showers bring May flowers” and what do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims. It is known for Mother’s Day which we celebrated last week. And finally, it is known for graduations. In the weeks ahead, countless high school and college graduations will be held, and countless numbers of students will be put to sleep by boring graduation speeches. In preparation for this message, I read several graduation speeches given by prominent people of the past and the present. There was a recurring theme that ran through many of the speeches. It was the idea that these students were getting ready to enter into real life. Something was getting ready to change. Apparently, the life that they had been living up to this point was in some way a dream, not reality, a shadow of things to come.
I have experienced what these speakers are talking about. While I was in school, life was a dream. Yes, I had to work to get the things done that were required of me by my teachers, but I didn’t have to work to survive. That was taken care of by my mother. She was the one who was living real life. She was the one who had to wonder about how she was going to pay all those bills and still have enough to provide food and clothing for me and the rest of the family. I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions for myself. She determined when I would go to bed and when I would get up. She decided what I was going to eat for my meals, and by being the one who bought all my clothes, she even decided what I was going to wear. I might have chafed under the level of control that she had over my life, but that control made life easy, even simple. Once I graduated from school and even more so, when I got married, life became real. I had to start making my own decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions. Sometimes I think that it would be easier to just go back to the old school days when teachers told me what I would need to know for the test, when the paper was due and success was judged by what grade I made on my report card.
When it comes to our Christianity, many of us are still living in school rather than enjoying real life. In Galatians 3:24 (KJV), Paul describes the Old Testament Law as a schoolmaster – a principal. The Colossian Christians were facing the temptation to throw away the freedom that spiritual graduation had given them and put themselves back under the authority of the law. False teachers had come in among them and were telling them that what they had in Christ was not enough for salvation or for real life. Along with Christ, they needed to follow all the requirements of the Jewish law. Faith in Christ alone, according to them, was not enough to receive forgiveness, attain victory, enjoy freedom or experience real spirituality. They needed something else.
But according to the Bible, everything that we need to make us right with God and to give us a full life is found complete in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) Jesus can give us real life and will give full life to all those who ask Him for it.
In the passage that we are going to look at today, Paul lets the Colossians and us know that those who put their confidence in Christ Jesus aren’t missing out on anything. He gives us four qualities of real life that are found complete and alone in Christ.
1. Real forgiveness is found only in Christ Jesus. (vs. 13-14)
It gives us life –"The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia [vapors] destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment: ’The living and the dead at his command were coupled face to face, and hand to hand; Till choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied, The lingering wretches pined away and died.’ – Paul Lee Tan Because of our sin, we were all tied to death. From the time that Adam sinned until today, sin brings death into the life of a person. In Rom. 6:23, it says, “For the wages of sin is death…” In sin, we die, but in Christ, we have been made alive.
It is complete – You don’t have to add anything to the work of Christ in order to gain forgiveness. You couldn’t add anything to it if you wanted to. Jesus said, “It is finished!” The work is complete, and all that we contribute to the process is our faith and acceptance. We can’t earn it through our good works or by keeping the law. (Titus 3:5) Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…”
It ends the guilt – In 2 Cor. 3, Paul speaks of the Old Testament Law as the ministry of death. All that the law had the power to do was to condemn. It let people know that they were guilty. It brought charges against them. Guilt is a good thing, because we have to experience guilt before we can desire and receive forgiveness. But once that forgiveness has been received, then the work of Jesus cancels those charges against us so that we never again have to face the guilt that they brought into our lives.
It pays the price - In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features save for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files…had very different headings.
As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "People I Have Liked". I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one.
And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalogue system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn’t match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed".
The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read", "Lies I Have Told", "Comfort I Have Given", "Jokes I Have Laughed At". Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I’ve Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn’t laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents". … Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature. …
When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts", I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind: "No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In an insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn’t matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it.
Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw another file. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With". The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand.
And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that the hurt started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key.
But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him. No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn’t bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one?
Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn’t anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn’t say a word. He just cried with me.
Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card.
"No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn’t be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don’t think I’ll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished." – Joshua Harris
TRAN: Once I receive forgiveness, then I gain the victory.
2. Real victory is found only in Jesus Christ. (vs. 15)
It disarms the enemy – what are the enemy’s weapons? Death, fear, lies. None of these have power over us any longer. It’s like Saddam Hussein using polio as a biological weapon against us when we have been inoculated against Polio. His weapon, once feared, now has no power over us. “Take up the shield of faith wherewith you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16)
It humiliates the enemy – When the Roman army was victorious against an enemy, they would have a giant parade of the armed forces through the streets of Rome. All the soldiers would parade before the Emperor and the Roman people. As the army came through, they would be dragging the commanders of the defeated enemy behind them. The people would laugh at them and perhaps throw rocks and rotten food at them. It was their way of saying, “You thought you could defeat us. Now, you stand there defeated and humiliated.”
When Satan saw Jesus hanging there on the cross, I’m sure that he was laughing right along with all of Jesus’ human enemies – the Pharisees and Roman soldiers. He thought he had won. Little did he realize that in dying, Jesus had defeated Satan forever. He gained the victory by yielding up his life. Satan thought that he had humiliated Jesus, but now, it is he that is humiliated as the defeated enemy.
It conquers the enemy – Those enemies who were paraded before the Emperor knew what their fate was going to be. They were going to die. (Rev 19:20) And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
TRAN: Once I have gained the victory, then I can enjoy freedom.
3. Real freedom is found only in Jesus Christ. (vs. 16-17)
It releases us from other’s expectations (vs. 16) – In a speech that she gave to the graduating class of Wessely College a couple of years ago, Oprah Winfrey told what it was like for her as she tried to build a career always trying to mold her life after the expectations of other people. “…for a long time I wanted to be somebody else. I mean growing up I didn’t have a lot of role models. I was born in l954. On TV there was only Buckwheat, and I was ten years old before I saw Diana Ross on "The Ed Sullivan Show" with the Supremes and said I want to be like that. It took me a long time to realize I was never going to have Diana Ross’ thighs, no matter how many diets I went on, and I was not going to have her hair neither unless I bought some. I came to [a] realization after being in television and having the news director trying to make me into something that I wasn’t. [He] told me that my hair was too thick and my eyes were too far apart and I needed a makeover... You learn a lot about yourself when you are Black, and a woman … and trying to be an anchor woman. You learn you are not Diana Ross and that you are not Barbara Walters who I was trying to be at the time.
It was through my series of mistakes that I learned I could be a better Oprah than I could be a better Barbara. I allowed Barbara to be the mentor for me, as she always has been, and I decided then to try to pursue the idea of being myself …
I remember being taken off the air in Baltimore, being told that I was no longer fit for television and that I could not anchor the news. … And it wasn’t until I was demoted as an on-air anchor woman and thrown into the talk show arena to get rid of me, that I allowed my own truth to come through. The first day I was on the air doing my first talk show back in l978, it felt like breathing, which is what your true passion should feel like. It should be so natural to you. And so, I took what had been a mistake, what had been perceived as a failure with my career as an anchor woman in the news business and turned it into a talk show career that’s done OK for me!”
All around her, people were trying to put her through a cookie cutter and make her into what they thought she should be. She was letting everyone else judge her and reshape her according to what they thought was right. Not until she threw off their expectations of her and just lived life as herself did she get to enjoy the freedom of life.
These Colossian Christians were in danger of letting someone else come in and turn them into something that they were not. The false teachers were telling them that they needed to follow all the regulations of Jewish law and Jewish life even though they were not Jews if they expected to be pleasing to God. In Christ, the Colossians had been set free from all of that. They had already graduated into Christ, but the false teachers were trying to send them back to the elementary school of the Jewish law which is what Paul is talking about when he mentions the “basic principles of life” in vs. 8. Paul says, “Don’t let them do that.” Don’t let them shape you into their mold of what a Christian is all about. The only mold that you are to follow is the mold that Christ set down for you. Don’t get so hung up on the outward appearances – having the right clothes, wearing your hair in the right style, listening to the right style of music. If it honors Christ and is obedient to His plan for your life, then enjoy it freely.
We as Christians and as a church need to be careful that we never try to force people to fit into our mold of what we think a Christian is supposed to be, do or look like. In the 60’s and 70’s, churches began to become very legalistic in their approach to Christianity and church life. During that time frame, there was more preaching against bell-bottom pants and long hair than there was preaching about the saving work of Jesus Christ. Through legalism, I can make a person look like a Christian on the outside, but I cannot change their hearts by making them conform to a set of man-made standards and expectations. New Life Baptist Church, and all churches for that matter, needs to be the kind of church that accepts and loves every person who walks through our door even if they’re wearing an earring in every conceivable part of their body. If, after they get saved, God tells them to remove some of those earrings, that’s up to God. I am not the judge. I don’t have the right to tell them what a Christian looks like.
It releases us from our blindness to see the truth. (vs. 17) – Rules, rituals and symbols that were supposed to point us to Christ or remind us of His life and work can become the focus of our attention and blind us to the real life that God wants us to have. That is what happened to the Jews and what Paul was warning the Colossians about. God had given the Jewish nation many religious feasts and celebrations. If you want to learn more about them, go to the book of Leviticus. Each of these celebrations had significance for something that God had done for Israel or was going to do. For example, the Passover was a commemoration of God’s protection of His people from the death angel that went through Egypt and killed all the firstborn of those who had not applied blood to the doorposts of their homes. The angel had “passed over” those homes. God wanted them to always remember this event, so He made it an annual celebration. But Passover also pointed forward to Christ. Just as the blood of a sacrificial lamb provided a way of salvation from the death angel, so the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus, can provide salvation for each person who allows God to apply that blood to their lives as payment for their sin.
The Sabbath was another symbol. It reminded people that God had rested from His work on the 7th day of creation, it provided a day of rest in their weekly pursuits, and it pointed to the rest from sin and self-reliance that we can find only in Jesus Christ. But the Sabbath became more important than the people that it was supposed to provide rest for and definitely more important than the Savior that it was supposed to point to. If you look through the Gospels, the thing that most infuriated the religious leaders of the day was when Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. The symbol had blinded them to the reality that Jesus was setting people free from sin and sickness. They had gotten so wrapped up in the ritual that they were unable to rejoice in the fact that people were getting healed and that the Savior had come. They were blinded.
Paul talks about blind people in 2 Cor. 4:4. He says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel…” Paul himself admitted that he too had once been blind. At one time, he thought that pleasing God was all about keeping these man-made rules and symbols. But God overcame that blindness. In vs. 6, he says, “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” When we as a church or as Christians present Christianity as a religion of rules, we help Satan keep people blind. Christianity isn’t about rules; it’s about a relationship with a God who loves us. I do my best to follow the standards that God has set down for me because I know that it is the best way and because I want to please the One who sacrificed so much for me. I’m not shackled to the law anymore; I am now free to obey because I choose to out of my love for Him. Christ has set me free. (Gal 5:1) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
TRAN: Freedom enables me to experience all that life in Christ has to offer.
4. Real spiritual experience is found only in Jesus Christ. (vs. 18-19)
Real spiritual experience is not about me (vs. 18). We live in a world that is seeking spiritual experience. Spirituality is in right now. Many of them have realized that what this present world offers them does not satisfy, so they’re looking for something else. That doesn’t mean that they’re looking to Christianity. They’re trying out Buddhism, Scientology, ancient Indian rituals, psychics and many other sources to meet their need for spiritual experience. We’ve even got churches all around us where the focus has moved away from truth to experience. And all of that experience is about self-gratification. Oh, they might convince themselves that they are there to worship God, and they might even believe that they have worshipped God when they start to feel the goosebumps crop up all over their skin. But probably all that has happened is that they have had an experience. No real worship has happened. Even some of you may be tempted to think that you come to church for an experience, and you might feel like you didn’t really have church today if you don’t get to have some kind of spiritual experience. Do you understand that you don’t come to church for you; you come to church for God. You come here to worship Him. Worship is about truth, because when I see the truth, I recognize who God is and who I am in comparison to Him, and I choose to place myself in proper relation to Him – at His feet. Real spiritual experience is not about me; it is about God.
Real spiritual experience is about God (vs. 19). When we lose connection with the Head, we lose the perspective we need in order to be able to determine what is real and what is shadows. I have described over-active children or an unorganized gathering using the phrase “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” even though I have never seen that actually happen. Some of you have seen a chicken running around like that. A chicken with its head cut off can still run around all over the yard. Nerve impulses are firing off wildly with no control. As far as the body is concerned, it is still enjoying experiences. But it no longer has a head to tell it whether or not those experiences are real and what the meaning of those experiences is. What it is experiencing as real life is actually a lie.
The only real, true experiences that are constructive in my life rather than being destructive are those that I experience as I remain connected to the Head and let Him turn me in the direction of obedience on a daily basis. Ask Isaiah what kind of experience it was for Him when He saw the Lord high and lifted up and fell down and worshipped Him. Ask him if that experience was about him or about God. Ask Moses what it was like to watch the waters of the Red Sea be divided right before your eyes. Ask Peter what he was feeling when he saw 5000 people come forward for salvation because of the message that he preached on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem. None of those experiences were focused on the people that were there. They were all focused on God. But the people there got to enjoy them.
True spiritual experience is not some kind of spiritual high that we get from listening to a great singer or participating in a service where everyone is speaking in tongues or being slain in the spirit. It’s about living a life of daily obedience that allows the power of God to flow through your life. When that happens, you will get to enjoy true spiritual experience because you will get to see God use you to help birth new life into a condemned sinner. You’ll get to see the body grow as Paul says in vs. 19. And you will enjoy this experience in true humility because you will know that it was God who brought about this experience, not you. You did not cause it to happen. The body “grows as God causes it to grow.”
CONCLUSION
His name was Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. Bill was a new Christian. Across the street from the campus of the college that Bill attended was a well-dressed, very conservative church. They wanted to develop a ministry to the students, but were not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go there.
He walked in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service had already begun and so Bill started down the aisle looking for a place to sit. The church was completely packed and he couldn’t find a seat. By now people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill got closer and closer to the pulpit and, when he realized there were no seats, he just squatted down right on the carpet.
By now the people were really uptight, and the tension in the air was thick. About this time, the minister realized that from way at the back of the church, a deacon was slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon was in his eighties, had silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walked with a cane and, as he started walking toward this boy, everyone was saying to themselves that you couldn’t blame him for what he was going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor? It took a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church was utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane.
The minister couldn’t even preach the sermon until the deacon did what he had to do. And then they saw this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowered himself and sat down next to Bill and worshipped with him so he wouldn’t be alone.
Everyone choked up with emotion. When the minister finally gained control, he said, "What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.”
Bill knew that he had been forgiven for all his sins, he lived victorious over Satan and sin, he had been freed from his bondage to the expectations of men, and because of that one deacon’s refusal to judge Bill by outward expressions of faith, that whole church got to experience real growth as they saw love and acceptance freely expressed.
INVITATION
Now, where are you on this continuum?
1. Have you received the complete forgiveness that Jesus offers? If not, you can do so today. Come to me, and I’ll show you how.
2. Are you living in victory over sin and Satan?
3. Are you still judging and being judged by outward human standards rather than by God’s standards of the heart?
4. Is your spiritual journey focused on yourself and your own self-gratification, or is it focused on true worship toward God and the growth of His church?
If you have a need in any of these areas, you don’t need to look any further than Jesus Christ. He provides real forgiveness, real victory, real freedom and real spiritual experience. Will you come to Him today?
