Sermon artwork

Colossians 2:16-23

Preached by David Glen on 23rd February 2025

Scripture

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

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—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? 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.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
The reading is taken from colossians chapter 2 verses 16 to 23, and that's found on page 1183 in the church bibles. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon seller or a Saturday. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in full humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.

Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen. They are puffed up with idle notions by their own spiritual mind. Mind. They have lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as god causes it to grow. Since you with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world.

Why? As though you still belong to the world, do you submit to its rules? Do not handle? Do not taste do not touch. These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.

So such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining, sensual indulgence. Well, can I add my welcome? My name is David. And, can I welcome Dan and Werner who are visiting us from Cornerstone? So please go and greet them afterwards.

I have to say I haven't done this for quite a long time, so I think I'll just take my glasses off and, then I won't be able to see you. And, I just hope there'll be someone left when I put them back on again. So, I'm gonna ask for the first slide to be put up. Fear leads to the dark side. Who said that?

Yoda. So Yoda from Star Wars, so you can probably tell the intellectual level of the sermon already. But there is some truth in it. Indeed, some writers think that it was the key ingredient that during the pandemic enabled governments in a democratic countries of the West to do what had only ever been achieved in authoritarian states, force people to stay at home, keep people from being with their loved ones when they died, or even have to ask permission to hug a grandchild. Now whether you agree or not with lockdown, it seems incredible now that such democratically elected governments were allowed to exercise such dictatorial powers.

1 writer says throughout his history, fear and insecurity has been the principal instrument of the authoritarian state. And it's this principle of fear that seems to be at work in the church of Colosi and that Paul addresses in this passage. If you know notice verse 16 and verse 18, he talks about those who pass judgment on them, and those who want to disqualify them. In other words, says Paul be warned against those whose teachings make you feel afraid and insecure. Fear says Paul will lead you to give up the freedom, wisdom, and transforming of Christ.

For you, you will let go of the head, Paul says, in verse 19, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from god, and instead led settle for a self made religion that only has the appearance of wisdom but lacks any value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Now before we look at what they let's think a little bit about who they were. There is some disagreement on this, but I'm going to go with **** Lucas, because if you know **** Lucas, you pretty much have to. But he thinks this is really a Christian error by which I mean it comes from Christian brothers and sisters. Many of whom are totally sincere in what they are teaching and urging on us.

This is not say probably from those outside the church, perhaps Jews who are trying to draw Christians back away from the new faith back to Old Testament Judaism. And second, the teaching can be very attractive because they do not seek to deny the gospel at all. Indeed, they would stand shoulder to shoulder if we talked about things like human sinfulness, high ice being the Messiah, Christ's sacrifice for the give forgiveness of sins and faith and all those things, but they hold out the possibility of a fuller, more powerful, victorious Christian life. And whoever doesn't want that. Most Christians are attracted by the thought of a shortcut to victorious Christian Living to a life of extraordinary spiritual experiences.

And many people are attracted by clear sets of do's and don'ts. And surprisingly, many increasingly attracted back to a moral stare form of Christianity. So let's turn to their teaching. And if we turn then to have a look at chapter 2, if we put the next slide up. There are 3 sections.

The first thing they're urging a on us is verse 16 to 17, religious rules and rituals, special foods, days and festivals. Secondly, 18 to 19, angel worship and visions. And thirdly, 20 21 do's and don'ts for the truly committed. So let's have a look at that, sir, first 1. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon sabbath, a newman celebration or a Sabbath Day.

The argument, these Christians probably Jews converted to Christianity are using may go something like this. Surely says the Jewish Christian, the Old Testament life and spirituality that marked off Old Testament Israel can still be useful to mark off his people today, surrounded as we are by paganism. Surely, so a concision, which he deals with earlier in the chapter, old testament regulations and the keeping of special festivals and days, will mark us out from the culture around us. Why would we not use them? Falls aren't is simple in verse 17.

These were only ever shadows, but the substance is to be found in Christ. Why go back to physical circumcision when we have Jesus who circumcises the heart? Why keep the Old Testament sabbath when Jesus is our Sabbath rest. God has never been pleased by religious ritual for its own sake. He wasn't pleased when people brought sacrifices when their hearts were far from him, and he wasn't pleased with the rich people who made significant public offerings to get praise from men.

And the pharisees, fair strict in their religious observance, but for them, it was just a performance, and their heart was far from god. Now is this an issue for us? I suppose what we can and can't do as on the Sabbath has always been an ongoing debate amongst Christians. Indeed, Maggie tells me of someone who lived in a church car culture that said no TV on Sunday. But they said, could we set the recorder on Saturday to record the program on Sunday and watch it on Monday.

Would that be allowed? But that's where this sort of thing ends up. Religious ritual can be very attractive, partly because they're often visual and sensory. So 1 of the issues certainly of the early church was that you've got to imagine dues converted to Christianity, especially, in, in the new faith, came out of the Old Testament faith with its priests, with its temples, with its ritual, with its smells, with its sacrifices. And now they're sitting in a house with none of that.

That looks far more impressive, which is often why people are drawn back to rituals and ceremonies and the visual and the sensory. Because it's more powerful. It seems more powerful. But Paul warns us against that kind of teaching. Second then, let's have a look at 18 and 19.

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen. They are puffed up with eye notions by their unspiritual mind, and they've lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as god causes it to grow. So this Iranious teaching made the Christians feel disqualified because they hadn't had the right visions and experience of god. The danger here is that their primary authority came from what had been seen and experienced, and Scripture became second in importance to personal direct revelation.

They looked for truth internally, weighing feelings and intuitions and other internal sensations. I think Paul calls it idle notions by their own spiritual mind. And those of us who are older will remember various teach things around, that said something like we rejoice that you're converted through faith in Christ. That's wonderful, but have you been filled with the spirit? And have you experienced these various spiritual experiences.

In other church circles, they talk about scripture as the starting point, but we must discern where god is leading the church now. That's I think, a big problem in the church of England. Scripture was good historically, but as we meet together and pray and think and consider, maybe god is leading us to do something different today. Or they denied the truth that there was 1 mediator between god and man, the man Christ Jesus, and they worshiped intermediate beings, which may be the thing about angel worship here. There was apparently evidence of angel worship around that time.

But since then, people have always been attracted to worshiping saints or icons or sort of thing. And maybe as evangelicals, we have to be careful too, not to focus on certain leaders and preachers who have elevated, in our, in our culture. Paul comments in verse 18 and 19 far from being spiritual, they're puffed up, and they've lost connection with the head. And then third, and in some ways, perhaps the most important 1 for us, verse 20 to 23. Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why as though do you you still belong to the do you submit to its rules?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have the appearance of wisdom with their self imposed worship and their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining endurance. So we have to face the unavoidable fact that as Jesus taught it from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come, ****** immorality, left murder. And in trying to master our unruly nature, some have turned to harsh treatment of the body.

So apparently, Gandhi stopped having ****** relations with his wife and then to prove his control over fleshly urges, he slept in the same bed as naked beautiful young women, but never touched them. Christian monks have apparently slept on boards, exposed themselves to streams of heat and cold, lived on top of a pillar and gone without bathing in their attempts to deal with sin. So the next time your teenager goes without showering for 3 or 4 days, may not, it may because they're commenting with spiritual things. But my favorite is, a lady called Catherine, a Christine Carpenter, who, was bricked into a wall in a little village in Surrey, and you can go there and still see it in the church. She asked to be bricked into the wall as an act of devotion, and she had 1 slip to look at the altar and 1 slip that they fed her through.

Halfway through, she decided did that she didn't really want to be bricked into a wall anymore, and they let her out. But then in an act of repentance, she begged the bishops to be put back in, and that's where she died. Well, these teachers at Colosi seem to be urging certain rules, things we do and not do, and harsh treatment of the body as key to a fuller, more victorious Christian life. And we're suggesting that who do not live by these rules were disqualified. And I'm sure growing up, some of you have seen some of this or heard some of this, the sort of music we should and shouldn't listen to, the clothes that we should wear.

And, at Cornerstone, we had, and lovely Ann thoroughgood in our where she gone, this is, in our home group. And it's been very interesting talking to her about her culture, church culture, where you the sorts of things you didn't do were quite a lot really. You didn't drink. You didn't go to pubs, play cards, gamble, smoke, theater. It was just not done by Christians.

And of course, when Cornerstone joined with their church and took over their building, we, we stay We started doing social events, and she had to adjust to having whiskey take tasting sessions, and that in the sanctuary, as they would call it, which only goes to show her Christian maturity. Repal's argument is that these things can look impressive, but do not change the heart. The person who does these things often looks impressive, but you wouldn't want to be like them. But we have to counter that and say as I'm sure these teachers did, did not Jesus teach self control, did not talk, say I beat my body to make it my slave, is not self control of fruit of the spirit. So we must learn a distinguish between self control or self denial, which is the fruit of the spirit, and asceticism, which is not.

So and I'm very grateful to a writer here that I found who does this brilliantly. So I'm just going to read out, sort of, sort of, sort of, a number of headings, and I'll put a link on the WhatsApp so you can explore this in more detail, because it is very helpful. So if you put up the first bit, so let me just read these to you. Aceticism sees the body as evil to be totally suppressed, but self discipline sees the body as good, but needing control. A set ism is submitting my body to my will, self discipline, is submitting my whole life to god's will.

Asseticism labels all material things as evil, self discipline properly uses and enjoys the things of the world. Accetticism views joys and pleasures as wrong, self discipline allows for fullness of joy and pleasure in god. Accetticism is restrictive, so self disciplined leads to greater freedom. Asseticism is aimed at obeying man made commands. Self disciplined is aimed at obeying god's commands.

And asceticism stems from the flesh and often leads to sin, self discipline stems from the Holy Spirit and as a means to true godliness. Aceticism, and this is a very important 1, is motivated gaining acceptance with god. Self discipline is motivated by assurance of being accepted by god. So please explore those more through the link I'll put up. So in summary, then what's wrong with this teaching?

This teaching leads you back as Paul says to a human religious system, which all consists of age old traditions of do's and don'ts. It subjective truth in favor of visions and intuitions. It often sees the physical as bad, and it has no power to transform human heart. Worse behind it are the evil powers that control the world, which is probably the meaning of, those spiritual forces and so on that he talks about. So just a couple of things to finish with in terms of application.

The problem with the false teachers is their failure to grasp that all the treasures of wisdom and understanding are to be found in Christ waste. The way we grow as Christians is not to add new revelation and new experiences, but to go deeper into the gospel truths we have in Christ and to help each other grow. And practical way to do that is to determine that you'll get to know the gospel in all its depth. And 1 of the best books to study on that is Romans, I've found. Study it not on your own, but with a group and with someone who can help study it, and study it until you can get the whole picture of the book, and even to the point where you could teach it to others.

The best way to be safe from error is to know the truth in-depth. The second thing is, again, for us to sort of consider. Our Western culture as you no doubt know is moving away from the Judeo Christian foundations we've enjoyed for a few hundred years. And as we do, our culture will revert inevitably to the elemental spirits of the world and its regulation a man made or pagan religion. You will see and are seeing changes.

1 of the big ones is we are moving away from a forgiveness culture, for example, which is Christian back to a chain culture, which is pagan. And there will be more rules and expectations which you have to follow or be canceled. This will be facilitated by fear of great forces such as pandemics and climate change, and objective revealed truth will be buried in lies. And in the end, if we lie and lie until it's not that we believe the eyes, it's just that we no longer know what the truth is. And then all you have is stories.

And in these stories, all kinds of things can happen. Men can become women, children become animals. But the church needs to be marked by our confidence in Christ as revealed in the scriptures. And let me finish with that a great passage from chapter 1. For the sun is the image of the invisible god, the firstborn born over all creation.

For in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been create it through him and for him. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in him, every in everything, he might have supremacy. And the law bless this to us, gentlemen.