Christ Preeminent (Part Fifteen): Substance Over Shadow

Transcript

JRNT 37
10/22/23
Christ Preeminent (Part Fifteen): Substance over Shadow
Colossians 2:16-17
Jesse Randolph


As we start our time together, I'm going to put a hypothetical situation before you, a hypothetical situation involving a married couple named Jason and Kay. These aren't real people, these are fictional people so if your name is Jason or Kay or if you are married and your names are Jason and Kay, I can assure you that is just a coincidence. Anyway, Jason and Kay are on the verge of celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. One of the big ones. And Jason who is not usually the greatest at planning for events like these knows what a big deal this is and knows that he really needs to step up his game for this one. Kay has been such an amazing wife to Jason for 25 years and he figures the least he can do on this momentous occasion is to go all out for her. So in the weeks leading up to the big day Jason comes up with a plan. He is going to take Kay to the nicest restaurant in town. He has reserved a private room in the back of the restaurant even, where they can enjoy each other's company and celebrate. He's going to get a fresh haircut, he's going to wear a sport coat, he's going to put a splash of Kay's favorite cologne on himself. He's going to send her out a few days before the dinner to get her hair and her nails done, to go get a new evening gown and even some new jewelry. He's arranged even to have a beautiful flower arrangement placed in the middle of the table at this restaurant in this private room. He's arranged to have candles placed throughout the room to give it that beautiful dim glow. He has even arranged a violinist to accompany the event. The stage is set for what promises to be a beautiful and memorable evening. And I can just picture the wives in the room nudging the husbands right about now and I'm glad I'm not sitting by my wife. Jason even orders a limo, he orders a limo and the limo that he has ordered comes and picks Kay and him up for this event. He holds his wife's hand as he walks her up the steps to the restaurant. He follows her into the restaurant, down the narrow corridor, into the private dining area. He takes in her reaction as she takes that first glance at this candlelit dining room. He soaks up the excitement she is obviously feeling as she absorbs all the details of the time and the thoughtfulness he put into this evening. Obviously moved by and grateful for what Jason has done to set up this event, and very grateful for their 25 years together, Kay runs up to Jason and hugs him and kisses him. Jason is happy. He is happy that his wife is happy. He has learned after 25 years of marriage that cultural maxim of “happy wife, happy life.” And he is happy that she is happy. He is happy that the night seems to be working out so far. So now it is time to eat and Jason in a true gentlemanly manner removes his wife's coat and hangs it up on the rack near them, he pulls out her seat and allows her to sit down and pushes the chair in. He then swings around to the other side of the table and seats himself and scoots his own chair in and now with them both seated and now with the night about to begin, Jason reaches under the table, grabs a 24” x 48” photograph of his wife and places it squarely between them. So now he has a photo of Kay his wife staring right at him, blocking the view of his actual bride. Instead of staring into the eyes of his bride of 25 years, he now has this grainy pixelated image of Kay that he has brought along with. Rather than enjoying the glimmering lights of the candles in her eyes and rather than enjoying a real genuine, substantive interaction with the one he has shared so much of life with, Jason makes the odd and the foolish and the regrettable decision to stare at a photo of her during dinner. An image of her, a copy of her, a mere shadow of her.

It's a silly illustration, I know, and you must be thinking wow what a lucky lady Mrs. Randolph down there, this is how she is treated all the time. Trust me, Culver's and Chick-fil-A is the way we roll. But I think it is a helpful illustration to think of a man like Jason who would voluntarily choose a copy, a shadow over the real thing, over the substance, because this is precisely what we're going to see happening in the text of Scripture we'll be in today.

Where we're going to be is Colossians 2:16-17 and by way of reminder these Christians there at Colossae are being tempted to follow certain false teachings which were starting to infiltrate their church. And they were tempted to do the same thing that we see Jason doing here, to chase after substitutes rather than the real thing. They were being tempted by the false teachers there in this city to stray from that simple and pure devotion to Christ, the One who saved them, the One who is in the ultimate sense the real thing and the substance of all things. And instead they were being tempted to play around with shadows of piety and devotion, to go down the path of empty and hollow religion.

If you're not there already, we'll be in Colossians 2:16-17, just two verses today. That will give us plenty to work with. God's Word reads, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come. But the substance belongs to Christ.” This morning's sermon is titled “Substance Over Shadows.” It's a title that lines up not only with the literal words of our text as you see there in verse 17, but it's a title that highlights what this text teaches about our deep-seated legalistic tendencies, even as Christians, to drift in the direction of believing there is something we must do in addition to what Christ has already done through His death, His burial and His resurrection to warrant a right relationship with God, to earn a favorable nod from God. In the case of the Colossians as you have heard me say repeatedly in our study of this book, these believers were being presented with this multi-faceted mixture of false teachings, this strange complicated strain of strange doctrine which we now know as the Colossian heresy. And the Colossian heresy, as we look back over at Colossians 2:8, was composed of philosophy and empty deception. Also in verse 8 it was composed of the tradition of men. Verse 18, it was composed of the worship of angels, as we will see next week, and visions, experiencing visions. also verse 18. And then in verse 23 it was composed of this idea of asceticism or what is described here in Colossians 2:23 as severe treatment of the body. And this heretical teaching was also laced with, as we are going to see in our text for today, a strand of Jewish influenced and Jewish infused legalism, to which Paul here in our text is saying, don't fall for it, don't go there. Don't take the bait of the heretics there at Colossae who through their introduction of various Jewish legalistic practices would seek to take you out to sea, spiritually speaking. Instead Colossians, remember that you have been rescued and redeemed. It has already been done. Recall who you are in Christ.

Our sermon this morning has three points. First, we're going to look at the structure, as in the structure for our text today and where it fits in with the arguments that Paul has been developing all the way through Colossians 2. Second, we're going to look at the shadows, as we look under the hood of each of these five prongs of Jewish legalism which the purveyors of the Colossian heresy were seeking to lay on the shoulders of these new believers. And then third, we're going to look at the substance as we consider all that is entailed with the final words of verse 17, “But the substance belongs to Christ.” So it's the structure, the shadows, the substance.

We'll start with the structure. Now as we sort of back out of the gate here this morning we need to reestablish our bearings here in verses 16-17 because what you're going to see now is what Paul is saying in our two verses for today actually links all the way back to Colossians 2:8. Let me go ahead and read that for us, Colossians 2:8. Paul there says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ.” And then from there what Paul has done is taken us on this major detour from that original train of thought there in verse 8 on being taken captive by lesser forms of wisdom to so-called wisdom of the world, to taking us now in verses 9-15 where we've been the past several weeks on this soaring overview of who Christ is and who we are in Christ. That's what we've been looking at in the last seven verses, verses 9-15, over the past many weeks. First we've looked at who Christ is: The eternal Son of God, the God/Man, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, the One who is both eternally perfectly God and perfectly Man. Not sort of God, not a lesser God but rather God of very God, God Himself, God incarnate, all that is wrapped in with what Paul said back in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” And then we see at the end of verse 10 that Jesus is also the supreme sovereign over all the universe. He is Christ preeminent. Look at the end of verse 10, “He is the head over all rule and authority.” So that's who Christ is in a real brief nutshell.

But now Paul has taken us, as we've seen over the past many weeks, to not only look at who Christ is but who we are in Christ. In fact let your eyes just rove down the page there, verses 10-15. Colossians 2:10, “In Him you have been made complete.” Verse 11, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” Verse 12, “You've been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.” Verse 13, last week, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Verse 14, “He has canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us.” He has “taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” And as we ended last week in verse 15, “when He had disarmed the rulers and authorities He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” So in this elevated interlude between what he said in verse 8 and now what he is going to say in verse 16, in verses 9-15, as we've been looking at for the past many weeks, Paul is reminding the Colossian believers, and all of us here this morning, who they are in Christ and all that they have and all that we have in Christ as those who have been made complete, as those who have received that circumcision made without hands, as those who have been buried with Him in baptism, as those that have been raised with Him to new life, as those who were once dead in our transgressions, as those who have now been made alive together with Him, as those who have been forgiven all our transgressions and as those who, as we saw last week, have already triumphed through the triumph He had over Satan and his evil forces.

So that's the structure, meaning the organization and the flow of Colossians 2 up to the point that we'll be today. And with that structure in place and with that foundation laid, Paul now gets to, in our text for today, finishing the thought he started back in Colossians 2:8 where he says, “Do not be taken captive through philosophy and empty deception.” In fact Paul is going to spend the remainder of Colossians 2 finishing out the thought he began over there in verse 8. And now in the two verses we'll be in today Paul is going to be warning against the perils of legalism. In the Colossian context it was a Judaistically tainted form of legalism that he had in view. And in the remainder of Colossians 2 as we'll see in the next couple of weeks, Paul will now address various forms of pagan mysticism, which were also being introduced as ingredients as part of this Colossian heresy.

So with that let's dive back into our two verses for this morning, Colossians 2:16-17. I'll read all of verse 16 once more and then we'll read partway into verse 17. And we're going to move on now from point 1, the structure to point 2, the shadows. He says, “Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come.” Now with those words we come upon a major transition in this text. As we've just seen, the tone of verses 9-15 is very much joyful, confident, triumphant thankfulness. But that good news message of Christ's victorious, triumphant death on the cross and the victory we have already experienced in Him was apparently at risk of already being forgotten here in Colossae, as they were already being presented with this hollow and empty form of so-called religion, these religious substitutes, by the false teachers there. They were at risk, like the husband staring at a picture of his wife instead of his wife at their anniversary dinner, of gazing into a substitute. And it would be foolish to do so but it would actually in the case of our salvation and where we stand before Christ be a disaster of monumental proportions if the Colossians were deceived into thinking that they could replace the real thing, Christ, with any religious substitutes. And here Paul in verse 16 lists the various form of religious substitutes that were being offered by the Colossian heretics, each of which we are about to see, had these Jewish elements. And by the way that was a real interesting take for these false teachers to take, to attempt to lay Jewish burdens on these new Gentile believers as they were in Colossae. But as we've already seen that was clearly the strategy that was being employed there, they really were trying to lay Jewish burdens down on these Gentile new converts. We saw that actually back in Colossians 2:11 where Paul says, he makes the point of telling these Gentile converts, “In Him you were also circumcised.” That's a clear flex on Judaism. Then he says, “with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” Then he goes on to say something similar, last week we saw in verse 13, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh He made you alive together with Him.” And of course this was not the only time early in the history of the Christian church that attempts were made to lay Jewish customs and rituals and burdens on early Gentile Christian converts. That was the very issue that made up the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. That was the issue at play and really a central theme of Paul's in the book of Galatians where Paul says things like this in Galatians 1:6. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different Gospel.” Or why he says with exasperation in Galatians 3:1, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Or the next verse he says, “This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law? Or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” And of course that's a major theme of the book of Hebrews and this warning of the author of Hebrews gives against drifting back into the old Jewish practices and customs and away from the better way of Christ.

And now we have Paul here in Colossians 2:16 saying to the Colossian church, no one is to “act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” We're going to go one by one through all five of those prongs—food, drink, festivals, new moons and Sabbath days here. And what they all represent is this Jewish syncretism, this mixed form of religion that was being introduced and pushed there in Colossae. But before we get to each one of those five we need to look at that first word at the head of verse 16 here, that word therefore. A simple word, an understandable word, a clear transitional word and in this context a word that is packing a whole lot of freight because what stands behind this word, this use of therefore is all of those transcendent Christological truths that Paul has laid out in verses 9-15. What stands behind this therefore in verse 16 are those remarkable reminders of this Christ who is so powerful and who is so majestic and who is so glorious and who is indeed preeminent and that it is this Christ who has saved us. By God He has saved us through this Christ. And He has rescued us and He has redeemed us. It is because of this Christ that our sins have been washed as white as snow and have been thrown into the depths of the ocean and are now declared as far as the east is from the west. And it is because of this Christ that we have been brought from death to life and now have eternal life and now have fellowship with God and this exceedingly glorious future to look forward to. All that is packed into the therefore here in verse 16. Coming off these rich reminders in verses 9-15 Paul now says therefore. And our reaction should be, the Colossians' reaction should have been, that of eager heeding and immediate complying because of who Christ is and because of who we are in Him. Whatever Paul is about to say next in this passage, we ought to be eager to want to do and heed and obey.

And look what he says next. He says, “no one is to act as your judge.” It is actually sort of an odd statement, the way it is crafted and constructed here because it's a third person imperative. Usually imperatives are in the second person where you point the finger at somebody and say, you do not judge, judge not. Or don't do something, or do something. It's a second person statement directed to another person. Here it is commanded to a third person, “no one,” it says, “is to act as your judge.” Literally, let no one judge you. Now the third person or the third persons Paul is addressing here are those false teachers in Colossae. But the implications of the command clearly were for the Colossian believers themselves. This would be like if I said to one of my sons if he were being bullied at school, “He can't bully you.” Now the command is actually directed at the bully, but the implication is for my son. I'm telling him, put the gloves on, be ready. Or is it actually take the gloves off? I was never bullied. Take the gloves off, right? All right, I'm moving on. Here in his letter to the Colossians Paul is saying that this early church was not to fall sway to these heretics who sought to act as their judge, who sought to, to use the illustration, be spiritual bullies.

Now of course in our day, I just have to take a little aside here as we look at those few words, no one is to act as your judge. In our day of course these words get cherry-picked. Do they not? By nonbelievers and weak-minded Christians alike as being evidence of what Christianity is all about. What Christianity is all about, they will say is being free from judgment as to how others live their lives. There will be people who will quote things like Matthew 7:1, right? Where our Lord says, “Judge not,” do not judge. Or they will lift words like these very words here in Colossians 2:16 and say look, it says right there “no one is to act as your judge.” And they'll act out in this sort of copy and paste exegesis and this weak reasoning to ram through whatever popular social cause they are in favor of to position Jesus as being far more open minded than the Scriptures present Him to be. To coddle and stroke whatever pet sin they are holding on to. You can't call my lifestyle sinful. You can't tell me I can't live with my boyfriend. You can't tell two people who love each other that they can't get married. You aren't the Holy Spirit, who are you to judge? Only God can judge. Judge not.

Well, to think or suppose that judgment is not part of being a Christian, and for that matter just being a human being created in the image of God is a serious error. We all make judgments, we all have to make judgment. Day by day we have to make judgments about things like what are we going to eat, what clothing are we going to wear, what direction are we going to drive. And in a community of faith like this one we necessarily have to make judgments all the time. We make judgments about statements that are made, whether our own or those made by others, including the statements I'm making right now, to determine whether they line up with biblical truth. We judge, or we ought to judge, our own motivations to ensure that the way that we are operating is in a manner consistent with what God's Word has revealed, in a manner that truly will honor God. We judge locally in ministry, whether we can say yes to a new ministry role that has been presented to us, whether someone else is qualified to take on a ministry role. We judge whether the pastor's sermon is running too long. It's just part of nature, right? That's part of who we are and what we have to be. We make judgments all the time. Yes, the Lord did say in Matthew 7 do not judge. But do you want to know what He said in John 7:24? “Judge with righteous judgment.” The idea that judgment is not to be exercised in a community of believers is a totally false concept. Judgment does happen and judgment needs to happen in the church. The question is whether the judgment that is imparted is the right kind of judgment, righteous judgment, judgment that measures up with the character of the righteous God we worship as He has revealed His character and His purposes in His Word.

Getting back to Colossae, the judgment that Paul mentions here in verse 16 was not righteous judgment. This was instead a wrong type of judgment, a sinful type of judgment as there were those here, namely the promoters of this Colossian heresy, who were placing themselves in a position of judge over these newer believers. And apparently what they were doing is they were judging them, condemning them because these new believers were not incorporating these old Jewish practices into their worship of the Lord. In other words these Colossian false teachers were attempting to lay down these legalistic burdens on these new believers at Colossae. They were criticizing these new converts for their lack of conformity to the old Mosaic Law. They were being openly contemptuous of the Colossian converts, they were criticizing them and condemning them and taking them to task for matters that were not really a matter of Christian compliance. And Paul here is saying in our passage, that's not okay. That's what he means when he says, “no one is to act as your judge.” As your judge over what? He lists the items there—in regard to food or drink or festival or new moons or Sabbaths. The false teachers in their judgment and condemnation of these early believers were using each of those five criteria and perhaps more to judge faithfulness. And as we are about to see, those criteria that they were using were rooted in the wrong understanding that the Mosaic Law still hung like a harrowing sword of Damocles over these new Christian converts, over these new ones who had been made new in Christ. These criteria that the false teachers were presenting were rooted in ignorance, what Paul says back in Colossians 2:14, that God through Christ has already “canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees,” which we saw last week was the Law.

Let's go through these items, these five items in verse 16, one by one, these five items of ritualistic observance the false teachers there were seeking to lay on the backs of these believers as burdens. Paul here is going to say, you are right to reject them. He starts with food. He says, “Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food.” Now of course under the old Mosaic Law and the Jewish regulations that had developed around the Mosaic Law there were all sorts of rules and regulations pertaining to the foods that one could eat and the foods that one could not partake of. There were laws that categorized certain animals as being clean and others as being unclean, and then the meat that came from that animal was either edible or not edible based on whether they were clean or unclean. You can look at Leviticus 11 this afternoon for a fascinating study of the cloven hoof and the rock badger and those sorts of things. There were laws that dealt with the process for draining the blood of animals before eating them. We see those laws in Leviticus 7 and Deuteronomy 12. There were laws that dictated that specific foods be eaten at certain feasts like the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Booths. We see that in Leviticus 23. There were laws that described exactly how the Passover meal was to be prepared, including the specific ingredients for that meal and the timing of when that meal was to take place. That's all in Exodus 12. And we even consider that in the Old Testament certain books like Daniel and Esther have this tone of this observance of these Old Testament dietary laws and restrictions being viewed as a fundamental mark of piety and religious devotion. Here in his letter to the church at Colossae, though, which was not written to Old Testament era Israelites but rather to New Testament era Gentiles, Paul is saying that these new believers didn't need to put up with any of those. “Let no one,” he says, “act as your judge” based on food, based on what you ate. No, based on Christ's already victorious triumph over the demonic rulers and authorities and powers in this world, based on the salvation that He had already bought them, they were now free to ignore those old requirements of the Law about what type of food they put in their body. What the false teachers at Colossae were teaching, in other words, these teachings were directly in contradiction to other passages of the New Testament, specifically the teachings of Christ.

Go back with me, if you would, to Mark 7. Mark 7, we're going to see the Lord's, some of the Lord's recorded words on this subject of types of food that we put in our body and the significance of the food that we put in our body. Look at Mark 7, picking it up in verse 14. Mark 7:14 says, “After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, listen to Me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Verse 17, “When He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable and He said to them, are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and is eliminated?” Now look at that parenthetical, “Thus He declared all foods clean.” Christ, in other words, our Lord, in other words, taught that foods themselves were neither moral nor immoral. Meat was not sinful, disobedience was sinful.

Not only that, though, do the Colossian teachers violate what Jesus said, it was also contradictory to what we see later in the book of Acts. Go over with me to Acts 10 where we'll see the vision Peter experienced at Joppa. And again just weigh this against what the false teachers in Colossae are saying later. Look at Acts 10:11. Picking up in mid-sentence there it says, “He saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.” That's a clear reference back to Leviticus 11. “A voice came to him, get up, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean. Again a voice came to him a second time, what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.” In this vision that Peter received it is very clear from the text that there were all kinds of animals on that sheet, both clean and unclean. And it's very clear that God declared there that he was free to eat of it all. “What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.”

In other words, bringing it back to Colossians, the burdens that were being placed on those new believers there by the false teachers there, the judgment that they were facing over the types of food they ate or chose not to eat was not only something that had been previously addressed by the Lord Himself in Mark 7, but by Peter there in Acts 10. Now also it was dealt in other aspects of Paul's ministry as he ministered all throughout this part of the world. In fact in Galatians, that was a major theme of Paul's very letter to the Galatians. Galatia was this region that was steeped with Jewish legalism and this issue of what one could eat and with whom one could eat led to this damaging confrontation, this split between Peter and Paul. Galatians 2, I won't turn you there, but Galatians 2:11 says, “But when Cephas came to Antioch,” this is Paul speaking, Cephas is Peter, “I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James,” the men from Jerusalem, “he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. I said to Cephas in the presence of all, if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not live like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews.” That last line in Galatians 2, it's Galatians 2:14, “How is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews” could have just as easily been addressed to the false teachers here at Colossae. How is it that you compel Gentiles to live like Jews.

Or what about Paul's ministry to Corinth where there was this issue of food being offered to idols in I Corinthians 8:9-10, which revealed that same essentially Jewish fear of idolatry? Or what about the book of Romans where Paul devoted significant attention in that letter to how Christians ought to live in mutual respect toward one another, including the attitudes they had about and the practices they had related to eating clean or unclean food. In Romans 14 he makes it very clear that God does not condemn those who eat everything, it says, clean or unclean. Romans 14:2 says, “One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats. For God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him to stand.” And then last there is I Timothy, written later in Paul's life and his ministry where God again, speaking through Paul, declares that all foods may be eaten. I Timothy 4:3, speaking of food there, says, “They were created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”

So bringing it back over to Colossae, this matter of what a person ate or what they chose not to eat, whether they ate a piece of meat that had previously in a different era been declared unclean or if it was clean, or in our context, whether we decide to eat a pancake or a potato chip or a cheeseburger or a slice of pizza, that is not a proper basis, that's what is being said here, for condemnation. I Corinthians 8:8 says, “But food will not commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat nor the better if we do eat.” And why is that? Romans 6:14, “You are not under Law but under grace.”

We move on in our text, Paul next describes drink. It says, “No one is to act as your judge in regard,” not only to food, but “to drink.” Paul here is saying that the Colossian believers did not need to put up with these efforts from these false teachers to impose Judaistic requirements or restrictions upon them related to what they drink. Now drink here, by the way, is not a reference to grape juice or Kool-Aid, I call it soda and you call it pop. This rather is a reference to wine and strong drink. What about that old line, that old fundamentalist line—I don't drink and I don't chew, and I don't go with girls who do. Or what about this whole notion of cultural fundamentalism? Or to that crowd who thinks it's a sin or otherwise fundamentally wrong for a Christian to partake of alcohol? Well I'm going to shamelessly admittedly dodge that question for this morning by simply noting that that wasn't the issue here. Paul here in Colossae was actually addressing a super narrow question. He was facing the question, not can Christians drink alcohol, he was not facing the question, should Christians drink alcohol. In fact he was addressing a very sliver of that question, the question being, should the Christians here in Colossae face judgment, ridicule, scorn, contempt to the extent that the practices that they engaged in related to drink would have been a violation of the Mosaic Law under the old system. And in response to that very specific question, Paul here answers, no they should not be judged—let no one judge you.

Now though it did have less to say about drinking than it did about eating, the Mosaic Law did lay down a few statements about drinking, just to sort of cover the waterfront here and make sure we cover this. There were restrictions on drinking placed, for instance, on priests who ministered in the tabernacle. Leviticus 10:9 says, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you when you come into the tent of meeting so that you will not die. It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations.” Or we think of the Nazirite vow of Numbers 6 which also prohibited drinking for those in that class. It says. “Again” this is Numbers 6:1, “the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink.” It's also true that we have the example of Daniel who resolved himself not to defile himself with the wine that the king drank, back in Daniel 1:8. It says, “Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food nor with the wine which he drank.”

But Paul here in Colossians is actually making a very simple and specific point. He is saying that for these early Christians at Colossae and for any follower of Christ, what drink or for that matter what food a person puts in his or her body is not to be judged by the standards of the Mosaic Law. Such decisions, instead, are to be judged by the Word of God which coupled with one's conscience marks out that which is sinful, that which is unwise, and that which requires the exercise of caution. And all the while remembering Romans 14:17, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

All right, the third area of living in which the Colossian Christians here were experiencing judgment at the hands of these false teachers was with regard to festivals. Look at the next part of verse 16, “no one is to act as your judge . . . in respect to a festival.” Now in the first century world people loved their feasts and their festivals. And we do too, do we not? In fact I ran a search to see how many different feasts and festivals have taken place in our neck of the woods in the last few months and which are coming up in the next few months. Here is what I found. North Platte hosted the Nebraskaland Day in June, Seward hosted the Fourth of July festival in July, Kool-Aid Days took place in Hastings in August, the Husker Harvest Days went down in Grand Island in September, Oktoberfest is happening literally everywhere, Novemberfest happens in Neligh, Nebraska in November and then in December there is a Christmas Walk happening in Kearney. People do love a good festival to mark seasons, to mark changes in seasons, to mark a change of pace of life, to enjoy good food, to enjoy good company.

Well, the heart of the festivals that Paul was describing here in Colossians 2 were not of the Husker Harvest Days variety. These were Jewish festivals. See, under the Mosaic Law this calendar of Jewish feasts had been created, feasts and festivals like the Feast of Booths and the Feast of Tabernacles and Passover and Pentecost, and those really set the rhythm for the entire year. And the question, you have to appreciate the first century context and the first century eyes of these believers here, the question that they had to grapple with in this part of the world at this time in history as people who had just come to faith in this Jewish Messiah and are now reading these Jewish Scriptures is this—do we, too, need to participate in these festivals as a mark of faithfulness and fidelity? Well, apparently the false teachers in Colossae were telling these early converts that they did have to follow what the Mosaic Law laid forth related to Jewish festivals and feasts. In other words, Jewish festivals and Jewish feasts were mandatory for Gentile Christians. And not only that, they were, as we see here, condemning and criticizing and judging the Colossian believers for not participating in these feasts. And Paul here with these words in verse 16 is trying to put a stop to it. “Let no one act as your judge . . . in respect to a festival.” In other words, whether you choose to commemorate a festival or celebrate a festival, that's completely up to you. If you choose to go to Oktoberfest or Novemberfest or Decemberfest, that's completely up to you.

Now note, Paul here wasn't condemning the observance of sacred days or seasons. In fact we know from Acts 20 that Paul even himself had an ongoing interest at some point in observing some of these. Acts 20, it says “Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.” What he is saying here is that these Colossians could not be condemned if they chose not to partake in the Jewish festivals. Christ had set them free from the burden of legalism that these false teachers were still trying to burden them with. Paul wasn't against all forms of religion, he was only against bad religion, taking backward retrograde steps that would place these Christ followers back under the Law. This comes out in Paul's writings to the Galatians on this very subject, observance of special days and season and months. Galatians 4:7, he says, “Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. However, at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again. You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that perhaps I've labored over you in vain.”

How foolish would it be for any Christian who has reaped the eternal benefits of Christ's atoning victory at Calvary to voluntarily place himself under the control of the very powers Christ has already conquered. How wrong it was for these false teachers at Colossae to shame and to judge and to condemn these new believers in this city into thinking that they needed to follow those old Jewish practices or that they were now bound as Gentile Christians by the Mosaic Law that God had imparted not to them but to Israel.

Moving on Paul next says that the Colossians were not to be judged for any practices related to “a new moon,” it says. In addition to their seasonal festivals the Jewish people historically had celebrated a new moon. It was a monthly Jewish celebration, if you go back especially to the older Old Testament, that involved rest and worship and fellowship and eating. You see frequent mention of it in the Old Testament, I'll give you a couple of references here. I Samuel 20:18, Jonathan saying to David here, “Tomorrow is the new moon and you will be missed because your seat will be empty.” Psalm 81:3, “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon on our feast day.” Ezekiel 46:3, “The people of the land shall also worship at the doorway of that gate before the Lord on the sabbaths and on the new moons.” We know, though, by later in Israel's history the Lord was sick of it all, sick of the false worship, sick of the new moon festivals and just the formalities of it. Hosea 2:11, He says, “I will put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths and all her festal assemblies.”

In other words these new moons at some point in Jewish history, in Israelite history, had become a regular occurrence on the Jewish calendar. And bringing it up to the Colossian context these new believers were facing pressure from these false teachers to somehow participate in some kind of new moon festival. And Paul here is saying, don't worry about it, don't worry about the pressure you are facing. You already have the ultimate reason to sing and praise and express unspeakable joy because of who you already are in Christ.

That brings us to our fifth area of Jewish law-keeping that the false teachers in Colossae were trying to impart or to burden these new believers with, that being Sabbath. Therefore, no one is to “act as your judge in regard to,” and then we see the last few words there, “a Sabbath day.” If there were any lingering doubts as to whether there was a Jewish element to the Colossian heresy, those doubts would be resolved right here because the Sabbath was, and I use that word intentionally, was a distinctly Jewish concept. The Sabbath was one of those items that marked out the Jews as being distinct from the Gentiles. It was an essential mark of one's Jewish identity. It was core to your covenantal belonging. It was modeled after the fact that God had rested at the conclusion of all six days, six 24-hour days, of creation. In fact go with me back to Exodus 31, if you would, where we see the Sabbath laid out here. Exodus 31, picking it up in verse 14, this is God addressing the Israelites directly. Exodus 31:14 says, “Therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor and was refreshed.”

Now a minor aside, if I may. It has become a practice in certain theological groups within Christianity, groups that think the Christian church has replaced Israel or that the Christian church is the new Israel or that the Christian church is subject to the old laws that were given to Israel, to refer to Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. The idea is that the Jews had their Sabbath and we have ours. The only problem is that practice and that terminology has no support in Scripture. Instead, all one sees when reading Scripture is that references to the Sabbath are explicitly in reference, as we see here in Exodus 31, to Israel. “So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever.” Not only that, the Ten Commandments that God originally gave to Moses, nine of them we know are restated in some form in the New Testament. Guess which one is not. That related to the Sabbath. Further, those who seek to impose this idea of a Sabbath on New Testament believers, those who would say that Sunday is the new Christian Sabbath, how they tend to get there is by resting their ideas on this notion of the Mosaic Law being divided into three parts: the moral, the civil and the ceremonial. And they'll say that the ceremonial and the civil laws, those relating to boiling goats in their mother's milk and what kind of threads you can mix together and what kind of laws govern the day-to-day administration in Israel, those don't carry over, they'll say to the church, but the moral aspects of the Law, they'll say, like those related to keeping the Sabbath, those do carry over to the Christian church. But that's a completely artificial and man-made distinction, to divide up the Law between its moral and civil and its ceremonial components, as though it is a buffet. It is a historically verifiable fact that the first mention of this so-called tripartite division between moral, civil and ceremonial law did not appear until the 13th century A.D. The reality is the Law made in itself no such distinction and the Scriptures themselves make no such distinction. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in one point, he has become guilty of the” ceremonial law. Right? That's how it goes? No, “he has become guilty of all” of it. James is not speaking to the law being divided into three parts, rather he speaks to the unity of the Law and how it rests and it falls as a cohesive whole. And as Christians who have trusted in the finished work of Christ on the cross, we praise Him for the fact, as He Himself said in Matthew 5:17 that He didn't come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. He “did not come to abolish but to fulfill” the entire Law.

Another consideration here as we just kind of tie this all together in what was being promoted, if we could turn back to Colossians now, is that the earliest Christians following Christ's resurrection, which did happen on the first day of the week, Sunday, we know that from John 20:1, they began gathering for various purposes on Sundays. You can see references to this in Acts 20:7 or I Corinthians 16:2. They weren't gathering, the early church, on Saturdays, they were gathering on Sundays. I just mention that to note that the believers here at Colossae, just like us today, were well within their rights in their exercise of their Christian liberties to worship on Sunday rather than on Saturday. They were not under the Mosaic Law, they were not bound by the concept of the Jewish Sabbath. There was no reason they needed to continue to face the hostility and the judgment and the condemnation from the false teachers here in this city, those who were in their midst.

As we turn to verse 17 Paul here notes that each of these things—food, drink, festivals, new moons, Sabbath days—were, it says, “a mere shadow, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come.” That word there for shadow refers to a dim outline, which fits really well because those Old Testament rituals and observances, they gave dim outlines of the substance that was pointed to in the New Testament, that substance being Christ. Each served its purpose in its time when it was effective. Food laws served their purposes in ancient Israel. So did regulations for drink, especially within the priestly class. Laws related to festivals, new moons and sabbaths served their purpose. But each, it says right here, was a mere shadow pointing to the real thing, pointing to the true fulfillment, that true fulfillment, of course, being Christ.

All right, we need to wrap this up, our third and final heading for this morning. We've seen The Structure, we've seen The Shadows, now we see The Substance. Look at the next half of verse 17, “the substance belongs to Christ.” What is a shadow's function? It's to reflect, it's to resemble, it's to outline the real thing, the substance. Right? When you are out for a walk on one of these beautiful fall afternoons that we've been having, when the air is crisp and our shadows are long is there any confusion about whether you and your shadow are one? Is there any confusion about where you end and where your shadow begins and vice versa? No, your shadow is distinct from your substance. But at the same time your shadow testifies to the substance, that faint outline of the real thing is of you, the substance. So it was with these different Jewish regulations that the false teachers at Colossae were seeking to impart and lay upon the new believers there. The regulations had had their time, they had had their day, they had served their purpose, but the reality, the substance was found in Christ. In Christ the things which were to come had in fact, come. The system of Jewish sacrifices that pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, Hebrews 9, showcases that those sacrifices pointed to His ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews 9:13, “If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ.” Christ in Scripture is referred to as the passover lamb for the believer. I Corinthians 5:6-7, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” Christ is the opened veil into the very presence of God. Hebrews 10:19-20, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.”

Various Jewish rules and regulations and rituals were shadows. Colossians 2:17 now says, “But the substance belongs to Christ,” meaning those who have Christ and those who belong to Christ are no longer under any obligation to follow the rules and the regulations and the laws of a bygone generation. Those who have the Jesus of today are not judged according to the regulations and the principles of yesterday. That should in no way denigrate the religion of Israel or be taken to be denigrating to the religion of Israel or the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul wasn't doing that in Colossians and we're not doing that here this morning. No, Paul valued the Old Testament laws and regulations for what they were, the shadow of things to come. But the Law had a time and it had a purpose, including these very laws relating to food and drink and festivals and new moons and Sabbath days. But the Law was limited in its purpose and its power and its potential. Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near.” Did you catch that last part? The Law cannot make perfect. Sacrifices cannot make perfect. Dietary and drinking restrictions and regulations cannot make perfect. Festivals and new moon celebrations cannot make perfect. Sabbath keeping cannot make perfect. It's only in Christ and through Christ and our trust in Christ that we can be presented as perfect before a God who requires perfection in His presence. It's only in Christ and through Christ and our belief upon His name that we can be complete. That's Colossians 2:10, “and in Him you have been made complete.”

Going back to the illustration I opened with this morning with Jason and Kay and their anniversary dinner, that picture that Jason placed of Kay on top of the dinner table there, obstructing his view of his bride of 25 years, is just like the Law that the false teachers here at Colossae were seeking to put before the Christians there, obstructing their view of and their gaze upon the One who had already saved them, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul here is reminding the Colossians that as Christians we already have the substance in Christ. Going back to our text of last week, Colossians 2:13, He has already made us alive “together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Having been recipients of such substantive truths and such substantive salvation from the Savior who Himself is the substance of all things, it would be a fool's errand to go chasing after shadows, to pursue the shadowy substitutes of this world when we have the substance in Christ.

Let's pray. God, thank You for this time together in Your Word. Thank You for the truths that You laid upon Paul here as he wrote out this text, this text to this Colossian church, a church that was surely in a unique context and facing unique challenges, but we know that all Scripture is breathed out by You and is profitable for You no matter the era, no matter the context, no matter the continent on which we live. And that's true of this text, to be sure. I pray that we would take away this morning the central and eternal truth that in Christ we already have the substance, in Christ we already have all that we need. It has been finished, our sin debt has been nailed to the cross. We already have eternal life, we already have the hope of glory. God, I pray that we would avert our gaze from any distractions that this world may provide, that we would be in tune with and able to run away from any false teaching that would take us away from the truth of the cross and that we would ultimately find our greatest satisfaction and hope in what Christ has already done. It's in His name we pray, amen.