Hope City Church Edinburgh
24th May - Matt Round
- Song
- Great Big God
- His Mercy Is More
- Nothing But The Blood
- Power in The Blood
- Intro meWe humans, we judge people based on how they look, based on what’s outside. We can’t help it. So it won’t surprise you that when I first met my wife-to-be’s father, showing up as the boyfriend looking like this [long hair], there was a little judgement going on. Time’s gone on and we’ve gotten over it and now we are great friends - but we do all judge others based on what’s outside - fair enough, of course, because it’s all we can see!And because we, and everyone else, are so busy judging based on what’s outside, there’s a lot of pressure in our world to polish that outside up, to tidy it up, right? To try and look good. Like my haircut here - my father-in-law would be proud! It’s really tempting to perform for the people around us - or just conform for the people around us. And honestly I think most of us do - at least to some extent.Sometimes good can come from this: my manners are lifted when I’m at a posh dinner where everyone’s, like, “darling, would you mind ever so much if you could please pass the salt”. But often when we perform for others or just conform for others, the result is we end up with this gap, this growing gap, between the way we look on the outside and who we really are on the inside. I expect every one of us can think of somewhere in our lives we know we’re just performing or conforming, not really being ourselves.This is true in our day to day life - but it can be an even bigger thing in our faith - and perhaps more dangerous. And this pressure, and the result inside/outside gap, is what we’re going to be thinking about together today as we keep on working through Colossians. It’s just a short book in the bible, one of the ones that was originally a letter to an ancient church.But before we dive in, today’s passage starts with the word “therefore”. And any time you see a “therefore”, you always need to ask this question: What’s the therefore there for? To answer that, we have to look a few verses back from today’s reading. So come with me to Col 2:13-15 and let’s find out what this therefore is there for! It’s pretty wonderful stuff.
Colossians 2:13–15 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.v14 when we were dead, God made us alive with Christ. How did he do that?He forgave all our sins and cancelled the charge “guilty” which stood against us, nailing it to the cross. So we’re free! Free! Forever we’re free! Just like we sang last week.This is the good news of the gospel. This is the hope for our city, the hope we want to share with our city.And see in verse 15 he says this “disarms” the powers and authorities? The picture he’s painting for us here is like this charge against us - the wrong things each of us have done - was the weapon being used against us. Our enemy, the devil, is called “the accuser”, and that’s because he so often tries to use this weapon. “But look at what you’ve done” “But look at the mess” “But see what’s really inside” “if they only knew”.. that’s how he fights with this weapon.And at the cross, Jesus destroys it - renders it null and void, gone, finished and done. Our sins are forgiven. The charge against us is cancelled. The powers, the authorities, our great enemy the devil - their weapon is gone. They cannot harm us any more. Christians, we’re free. Free from accusation - and then we get this therefore. Therefore, says Paul, don’t let anyone (i) judge you or (ii) disqualify you or (iii) compel you.Let’s hear what Paul says flows out of this and think about what it means together. And we’re in Colossians 2, and reading from verse 16. And Nick / Michael is reading for us today. Colossians 2, page 1183, and we’re starting from verse 16.Colossians 2:16–23 NIV Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 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 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 idle notions by their unspiritual 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 died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged 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. 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.Christians, we’re free! The powers are disarmed! Therefore don’t let anyone judge you or disqualify you or compel you.But notice with me what sort of things these powers - maybe it’s supernatural powers and maybe it’s earthly powers - and maybe both - notice what sort of things these powers want to judge us over in today’s passage. Where are they trying to wield that weapon, that accusation? Notice where it starts: not with the skeletons I might have in my closet, my past failures which hang over me, or with my proud, angry heart and careless tongue today - but with the way I practice my religion.Our writer Paul, he used to be religious guy #1, top-religious-dawg Pharisee. But now he hates religion. Let’s dig in and find out why - and as we do, we’ll see there are three particular types of religious people he singles out.First, “Shadow Enforcers”: he calls out people who judge based on religious prohibitions and prescriptions. Prohibitions - rules about what you can’t do: when he talks about “what you eat or drink”, he’s probably referring to Jewish rules around food - no bacon, no shellfish, no roadkill - maybe not too much of a loss, that one.Prescriptions: rules about what you must do - and again, probably referring to to Jewish rules around religious festivals, monthly celebrations and Sabbaths. See, good Jews had to show up in Jerusalem for at least three great festivals Ex 23:14-17; passover, firstfruits at the start of the harvest, and ingathering at the end. There was a special monthly offering and feast, and then Sabbath here might refer to special sabbaths within these festivals or the pattern of weekly rest and worship.Now these are not bad things - they were commanded things in the Old Testament, the first part of the bible. And you can see it is specifically these commanded Jewish observances that are in view because Paul describes them as “shadows” in v17 - that is, they’re not the real thing, but they are connected to it, deliberately pointing to it; you can draw straight lines from them to the real thing - just like you can with shadows.He warns these Colossian believers against these Shadow Enforcers: don’t let anyone judge you based on your performance of these Jewish rites - because these are just shadows. You already have the reality all the lines trace forward to: Jesus. We don’t have time today to walk through how these Jewish observances point forward to Jesus but they do. And we have Jesus, the reality - we don’t need to keep to the shadows - and we should not be judged on them.Then it’s like he takes another step deeper into religion from this Jewish starting point, and takes aim at people I’m calling Offside Enthusiasts. Not a football thing, which is good because I don’t understand football things, but people who end up proud and judgemental through spiritual experiences. Col 2:18Colossians 2:18 NIV 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 idle notions by their unspiritual mind.He talks about the worship of angels and that might mean worshiping the angels - lots of Reformation-era writers like to link this to praying to saints and Mary and the like, seeing a false humility which won’t dare approach Jesus directly and needs a middleman - or middlewoman. But since we started out from a very Jewish place, and it would be absolutely unthinkable for a Jew to worship an angel - or any thing other than God himself, there’s another option which I think makes more sense.See, that phrase “worship of angels” can be read two ways - just like “fear of dentists” can: it could be explaining why someone avoids them at all costs - like I do - or it could be telling us what it is that dentists fear. I wonder if dentists are the fear of dentists? But I digress. That phrase “worship of angels” can be read two ways: “worship of” as-in worship directed-towards angels or “worship of” as-in worship performed-by angels. And given that Jewish starting point could never worship angels, it’s more likely the latter.So then we’ve got these people who are delighting in what they see as the worship style of heaven - CCM, obviously; delighting in sharing endless details of the visions they’ve seen. And Paul’s warning is don’t let enthusiasts like that disqualify you. Declare you offside because you don’t accept their style, don’t go along with their visions.Is Paul saying there are no such things as visions? no such thing as heavenly worship? No. Elsewhere he speaks about supernatural visions he’s seen and supernatural worship he’s shared in. It’s when these things leave people detached from “the head” - that is Jesus, leave them so puffed up with pride at their own spiritual experiences they start to think they don’t need him, that things go wrong. That’s what he’s warning about.These people have lost connection with Jesus - and so they are losing connection with “the body” that is, the Church, and they can no longer grow - because it’s only in connection to Christ that God causes us all to grow. Don’t get drawn in by them, detached and then disqualified.Ok, Shadow Enforcers. Offside Enthusiasts. One more kind of people: Harsh Worshipers - people whose religion is squeezing the life out of life. Col 2:20-23Colossians 2:20–23 NIV “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”This is their anthem. Some commentators see a progression here: do not hold on to it; grasping the fruit as you eat it. Don’t even taste it in the first place. You know what, don’t even touch it. Leave it totally alone. It’s the only way to be sure. It’s like they want a total withdraw from this physical world. Everything physical is corrupted, and the only way to be truly spiritual is to leave it all behind. The harsher the “worship”, the better, they think.Certainly there have been parts of historical Christianity - and present Christianity too - that almost take delight in the harshness of their version of the Christian life. When I was studying theology at uni I remember learning about the “pillar stylites” back in the fifth and sixth century - people who lived for years or even decades on the top of a stone column - which is a bit weird - just to be separate from the world and devoted to God.But this idea we need to get away from the physical world to be truly spiritual, that is not Christian teaching. And notice we are now far afield from the Old Testament Judaism we started with. This is not God’s call or God’s way - not even close. It is, as verse 22 puts it,Colossians 2:22 NIV merely human commands and teachings.And these Harsh Worshippers, see it’s not like they’re making life miserable for themselves - but making some spiritual progress in return. It doesn’t even work! See how Paul finishes? Colossians 2:23 “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.” Doesn’t work even one little bit.You’ve squeezed the life out of life - and for what? Nothing. Sensual indulgence, what they were presumably trying to get away from, isn’t restrained by this Harsh Worship - or worship of harshness. In fact, it’s worse than that. Rather than becoming more humble, they become less humble: “look at me! look at me!” - see that “false humility”, well what’s the opposite of humility? Pride. Rather than becoming more godly through their Harsh Worship, they become more ungodly!Easy to laugh at others - but have you ever seen that in yourself? Make a new commitment to read your bible and pray every day. And somehow instead of making you more godly, it makes you grumpy and impatient, a performer too busy for your family who proudly ticks those two boxes each day. There’s a real attraction to this Harsh Worship - “it has an appearance of wisdom” - but Paul is warning us about it because it doesn’t work at all.So there you go: three strikes against “religion” - we must watch out for, and must not become, Shadow Enforcers, Offside Enthusiasts, or Harsh Worshippers. Don’t let anyone take you captive. Because, remember where we started, we .. are .. free!So, you might be thinking, I’m meant to be free. That’s what Paul is wanting me to get and remember here. I’m free - as in “free to do what I want any old time” Well, no. That’s not the true freedom we have. Remember what we read and thought about as we set out? We have freedom from condemnation. Freedom from sin. Freedom from the powers and authorities, and the weaponised accusation they would use against us.But we’re not just freed-from things, we’re freed-for things, too. We have this freedom because we are rooted in Christ, the Lord of all. And if we’re rooted, like trees, we can’t do whatever we want or go whatever we want. Rooted means fixed, secured, right? And if we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, Lord of all, then he must be Lord of me - and of you, too. So it’s a freedom, paradoxically, that comes with being rooted and having a Lord.And you see exactly this in what we’ve already covered in Colossians: remember we are to 1:10 “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way”? And just read on a few verses into chapter three: there’s a whole raft of commands which come with this freedom, this rooting, and this Lord. v5 “put to death” -as in, stamp out completely from your life- v8 “rid yourself of” same thing v12 “clothe yourselves with” -add in, make normal in your life - going in the opposite direction.Here’s the thing we need to see: this whole section we’ve looked at today, all of it is about what’s outside. None of it is about what’s inside. Did you notice that? Nothing about the heart, the mind, the soul, the will. All of it is about how we look, what we do, what others see, what they will think.The outside - that’s what other people see. That’s what other people judge. That’s the basis on which they would disqualify us. That’s the sphere in which they would compel us. What’s outside.The bible tells us “Man looks on the outside - but God looks on the heart.” Ultimately it’s not the outside that matters to God, it’s the inside. This is where our God wants to see us changed: in here. That’s why all this religion - all this trying to change the outside stuff is useless - because it doesn’t change what’s on the inside.In-here is fundamentally where, and how, God wants us to change. Yes, any real change in here will begin to show out there in time. But it’s in here that it starts. Inside is the root. Outside is the fruit.Picture this: you have a tree, an apple tree, but it’s been rubbish for years. Hardly growing at all. Barely blossoms. And when fruit season comes, nothing grows. All this outside stuff we’ve been talking about, performing, conforming - it’s like sticking apples you bought at Tesco onto the tree and pretending everything’s good. It’s not good. The tree’s still as sick as ever on the inside. None of that fruit really comes from it. And it won’t last.But if that tree can put down good roots into rich soil, and draw in the moisture and nutrients it needs, but doesn’t have in itself - well then you’ll see fruit, fruit that comes, fruit that lasts. That’s what it should mean to be a true Christian: There’s no gap between what’s inside of you and what’s outside. There’s no performing or conforming, instead there’s a genuine transforming, from the inside out, which comes from being rooted in Christ, and drawing in this transforming power through the Spirit.So let’s get practical. So what? What difference does this make for me, for you? What should we be taking away?Maybe first, whether you’re a Christian or not, it’d be worth thinking for a minute about how big this gap is between what’s inside and what’s outside. For you, and for me, how much of what people see is genuine, fruit grown from what’s inside? And how much is just performing, just stuck on? What did you do this week only because someone would see it? What would you have left undone if they weren’t watching?Try and pick something, one thing, where there is this gap, where you know you’ve just been performing. … Got it? Now ask yourself “why?”. Why are you performing? Who’s it for? Who’s the audience? Who are you trying to please?If you find you are trying to please others - people around you, people you look up to, important people, powerful people - then I want you to know that Jesus Christ came to set you free - free from that. And if you are a Christian, you are free. So see to it that no-one takes you captive. Don’t go down without a fight. The only one you truly need to please is God. And, since you are in Christ, God has declared once and for all he is well pleased.But if with this performance it’s not others you are trying to please, but God, do you not know that he sees straight through you and me? Man looks on the outside but God looks on the heart. Of course the God who made us sees right through us, to the core, the heart. And change on the inside is what he wants, not just performance on the outside.I think every Christian knows what it is to wish we had made more progress, that we were more changed. To see how far we fall short of what we know we should be, how we know we should feel, the way we know we should act. And I think probably all of us know what it is to put on an act and pretend we’re something we’re not, to pretend we’ve made more progress than we really have in becoming like Jesus.Today I want to invite you to give up, to give up performing, to let go of that stuck on fruit - and to ask God instead for His help and power to really change. It’s only from that root in Christ that the living water of the Spirit can flow into us and produce the real fruit of change. Ask God - ask God for that change. You can do it now, inside your heart. There such a freedom available for us in having the mighty power of God come work within us and bring change instead of trying to wring it out of ourselves. A real liberation.Our pastoral support team are here to help you walk through this journey of change that comes from God, comes from the heart. If you’re feeling stuck and helpless please don’t go it alone. Reach out - in the app, email, in person - and ask for someone to walk with you through it.And if you’re not a Christian here today, but you know this gap is there, you know you pretend and perform … If you grasp this morning that you cannot please the God who sees what’s inside of you, that he cannot be fooled, that you cannot pull the wool over his eyes, I want you to hear the good news that Jesus has come not to crush you, but to save you and set you free.Colossians 2:6–7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:13–15NIV2011
Colossians 2:16-17NIV2011
Colossians 2:18NIV2011
Colossians 2:19-20NIV2011
Colossians 2:21-22NIV2011
Colossians 2:23NIV2011
Exodus 23:14–17NIV2011
Colossians 2:16–17NIV2011
Colossians 2:18NIV2011
Colossians 2:18NIV2011
Colossians 2:22NIV2011
Colossians 2:22–23NIV2011
Colossians 1:9–10NIV2011
Colossians 3:5–12NIV2011
Colossians 3:5–12NIV2011
Colossians 3:5–12NIV2011
1 Samuel 16:7NIV2011
- Colossians 2:6-7
Hope City Church Edinburgh
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