Chapter 2, verses 20 through 23, you don't have a Bible, you can find the text on the back of your order of worship. And just by way of instruction, basically the pattern that I use to preach, if you're new here, is to do old testament in the fall, and then gospels in the spring and winter, and then in the summer, the epistles, and so we're starting. At last summer I preached Colossians 1 and 2, except for these verses, and this summer we'll pick up right where we left off last summer, and hopefully we'll finish the book. I quit promising those kind of things, but we'll see what we can do. So I say to you, hear the Word of God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why is if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. 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. Let us pray. Father, I pray now that as we come before you and seek to understand your Word that you would make the gospel clear this morning, I pray that you would teach us, what does it mean for us to die with Christ? What does it mean for us to be changed truly and genuinely? I pray that you would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, I pray that you would be in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding, in my mouth and in my speaking. In Christ's name, we pray these things, amen, in amen. Well, if you've forgotten what I talked about last summer, up to this point, in the book of Colossians, you could have kept up to date, you could have kept yourself fresh on the book of Colossians if you had spent the last year watching reruns of The Simpsons, at least one of them. Several years ago, Judy was at a town, and Abby and I were watching an episode of The Simpsons, that's how I know Judy was at a town because we were watching The Simpsons. And as we were watching the episode, basically revolved around Homer and Bart and Lisa, and Bart and Lisa had come to the conclusion that Homer was no longer cool. He's not a cool dad, and those of you who are fathers know what a wounding moment that is when your children decide that you're not cool. The only thing you can do is show them that at least you're not, you're crazy. You might not be cool, but you still are crazy. So Homer decides he's going to show them how cool he is, and so he takes Bart and Lisa to this event called Hecapalooza, or Hecapalooza. And at this event, Homer realizes that he has a special talent that no one else in the world has, and Homer can actually catch cannonballs in his gut as they're fired from a cannon. And so over and over again, Homer has people fire cannon, and the cannonball hits him in the gut, and the whole time a doctor is on the scene, and a doctor gets a little worried about it. And he says, Homer, if you keep catching cannonballs in the gut, it's going to kill you. And instead of, you know, pleading with his dad, dad, you know, you've proven your point, you're cool, we believe it now. Instead of doing that, Bart actually begins to fill out life insurance forms on Homer. And he's going through asking him questions, and then Bart gets to the religion question, he says, hey, Homer, what religion are you? And Homer, without even thinking, says, well, you know, the one with lots of rules, it never work, and Bart says Christianity, and he says, that's it. Pretty sad, isn't it, that's the view. I remember then, Abby, I was six or seven, and Abby looked at me and she said, what do you mean by that? And I said, the first thing that came to my mind, I said, Abby, Homer has fallen victim to the Colossian Heresy. She didn't know what that meant either, but it got me off the hook. What's the Colossian Heresy? Well, it's not anything specific. The Colossian Heresy is much like the Galatian Heresy, the first Corinthian Heresy, the second Corinthian Heresy, the first EPC Heresy. What is it? It's just this, generally speaking, that people would come into the church and say, you know, Jesus, it's good that you trust a Jesus, it really is. Everyone needs to trust Jesus, but what's better is if you really behave well. You see, here's a bunch of rules, and if you follow these rules, Jesus will really love you. I mean, he loves you, we know that the Bible says that, but if you really want to be on the inside, if you really want to be seen as obedient by God and respected by men, follow these rules and you'll be golden. And what Paul's doing in Colossians is he's addressing that issue. He's addressing that problem. You see, the book of Colossians is an interesting book, because most of the time when Paul visited places or he wrote letters, he visited and wrote to major urban centers. He would have visited, you know, if he were alive today, he would visit, you know, New York and San Francisco maybe, maybe Seattle. But a place like Colossae, he wouldn't have done it. Colossae, in the ancient Near East, would have been the equivalent of Kent, Washington, to Seattle. And it's, Seattle would have been layered to see it. You ever travel, right? We went on this 2500 mile road trip and people you meet along with says, where are you from? They can't to Auburn or Renton. They go, huh? So, what do you tell them? We're from Seattle. That's what Colossae was. No one from Colossae would have said, where are you from? They wouldn't have said Colossae. They said, we're from Laodicea. We're from the big area. Either way, the question, so the question is, how did they get this letter? And the answer lies with this man named Apapras. We know he was a friend of Paul's and visited him quite often, and we also know that he started the church in Colossae. So, if you put, you know, two and two together, basically it seems that Apapras asked Paul to write this letter to Colossae. Asked him a favor, and he did. And the questions that Paul addresses in this letter, the overarching questions are the same ones he addresses all the time. Question number one, who is Jesus? Question number two, why do I need him? And question number three, do I need anything else? Who is Jesus? Why do I need him in question number three? Do I need anything else if I have Jesus? That's what we're going to talk about today. Do I need anything else? And that's what Paul's asking them. You see, the overarching question in this text really at the end of the day, is when you think about Christianity, is it a religion or a faith about restraint, or is it a faith about liberation? Is it a faith that holds you back, or is it a faith that frees you up? And we're going to look at three things this morning as we talk about that. Three questions really. I'm going to talk about the question of death, the question of sin, and the question of restraint. Let's talk first about the question of death. No, some verse 20, Paul says, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why is if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to these things that all parishes there used? Why does Paul immediately begin to talk about death? He's addressing people who would come in, by the way, just as a side note, the way that heresy always enters the church is by way of goodness, not badness. The way that people bring false teaching into churches is not by way of badness, it's by way of goodness. And what do I mean by that? If someone comes into the church and they walk through the door and they immediately start saying, you know, here's what it's important if you want to be accepted by God. You need to be a fornicator, you need to be a drunk, you need to be a latch, you need to leave your family, you need to be an adulterer. They wouldn't make it through the doors, but when someone comes through and they begin talking about how good you ought to be, here's what it means to be a Christian, to be good, to follow certain rules. And Paul says, that's over for you if you're a Christian. Why? And he asks him a rhetorical question. He says, why if you have died with Christ, do you still submit to these rules? And the key to understanding the whole thing is to understand the nature of death. If you remember all the way back in Genesis 1 and 2 when God creates everything, he creates Adam and Eve, he puts them in the garden and he tells them don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because if you do, on the day that you do, you will surely what? Die. And you read the story and they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and on the surface it appears that they haven't died, at least physically. But we know that they have died in that they are now completely and utterly separated and severed from a relationship with God. In other words, death at its very definition has to do with severing of a relationship and severing of ties. And if you even think about it in your own life, we lose those who are dear to us. If nothing else we feel, something has been lost or relationship has been severed. It's no longer there. That is what death does. That's the bad news. The bad news is that because of Adam's sin and because of your sin, am I sin? We are irrevocably separated from God if we have anything to do with it. If it's up to us, death that sin brought has separated us from God. And what Paul says here, the answer to the Christian life, the answer to all your issues is another death. He says, if you died with Christ, why do you still submit to the rules of this world? In other words, the death that Adam suffered in being separated from God was completely and utterly reversed in the death that came with Jesus. You see, in Adam's sin, we were separated from God. In the death of Jesus and our death with Him, we are actually separated from our sin. Separation happens both ways. You're either separated from God or you're separated from your sin, but you're separated from something one way or the other. And Paul says, if you've been separated from your sin, if you've been separated from the need to perform in order to please God, if you've been separated from all of these things, why do you still act like you need to do these things in order to be accepted? Why do you still do it? That's a great question, isn't it? If Jesus has taken away all of your sins, why are you so insecure? If Jesus has taken away all of your sins, do you realize that when Jesus died, He not only took our sins upon Him and took our punishment, but according to the gospel, we died with Him. The punishment for our sin was taken away and now there's nothing else that we can do in order to please God. Not a thing, no rule following, no anything. And Paul's question to the Colossians is, if that's true, then why do you still submit yourself to human regulations? Why do you still submit yourself to these bogus teachers? And the answer is, is they don't really get it. And the extent to which you and I submit ourselves in hopes that God is going to love us or submit ourselves to different rules and different teachings in hopes that somehow it's going to be a backup policy, shows the extent to which we don't get it. The question is, has the gospel really liberated you? Has the gospel made you free, regardless of your circumstances? Have you ever seen the movie Amistad? The movie Amistad is one of the most powerful movies I think I've ever seen. You remember the movie basically a group of Africans is kidnapped and they're on the way to Cuba and they mutiny. And as they mutiny, they spare the captain and they tell the captain to take them back to Africa, this is mid-18th century, to take them back to Africa. And since they can't speak the language, they don't know what's going on. The captain tells them he will but instead he takes them to Spain. They're eventually extradited to the United States and there's this huge question is to whom do these people belong? If anybody, are they slaves or are they not slaves? They were kidnapped. What does that mean? It's a wretched movie in that sense to see what these folks went through and there are two main characters among those who've been kidnapped. One's name is Sinkay, one's name is Yamba. Sinkay's the spokesman, Sinkay tends to be more optimistic and Yamba on the other hand would be me. He's cynical, he expects the worse and expects the worse from those who hold him captive and each day they go from their jail to the courthouse and each day as they do their abolitionists to stand along the sidewalk. And it's interesting, there's some humor there because the Africans are talking to each other and they show the subtitles. And one of them asks, Sinkay asks, Yamba, do you think they're entertainers out here on the street? And Yamba says, no, they couldn't be entertainers because they're too miserable. The Christians, by the way. And one day as they're making this trek from the jail to the courthouse, one of the abolitionists puts his Bible out in front of Yamba and Yamba bitterly grabs it from him and takes it. And for the rest of the movie, you see glimpses of Yamba looking through this Bible and toward the end, Sinkay, they're in jail and Sinkay looks over and he sees Yamba just enamored and pouring over this Bible and Sinkay says, you can quit acting like you know how to read that, no one's looking. And he says, you don't need to read it, there's pictures, it's a picture Bible. And he grabs the Bible, he says, come here. And Sinkay looks over and he points out, he shows him a picture first of Daniel and the lion's den. And he said, this book is about a people who are enslaved like we are, only they added a lot worse. And then they were taken and they were enslaved again, it shows Babylon and says, but then he came, look. And it's a picture of the nativity. He says, when he came, everything changed. And he showed him pictures, he said, he grew up and look, he took care of the poor. And he turned the page, look, he took care of the children. And he goes on and on and on and on. And he says, but then they killed him. And Sinkay said, they wouldn't kill an innocent man. And Yamba looks at him and says, look at us. He says, but the story is not over. And he turns the page and it says, he rose again from the dead. Look. And then he turns a picture and there's a picture of heaven. And he puts his finger down. He says, that's where I'm going when they kill us.
And the next morning, as they're walking to the courthouse, he looks and sees three masks of ships that look exactly like crosses and he just breaks down and begins to weep. Why? Because Yamba has been liberated. His chains around his ankles and chains around his arms, but the gospel has liberated him. His sins are gone. And they can do anything to the outside of him. And it doesn't matter because the inside of him has been fundamentally changed. And the question is, have you been changed by the gospel? Have you? You can't be unless you deal with the question of sin first. Right. First thing we look at is a question of death. The second is a question of sin. What do I mean by that? Let me read it to you. Paul says, he's mocking the teacher. He says, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all parishes there use according to human precepts and teaching. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom. So what's the nature of sin? Is the nature of sin really what it is that happens on the outside of us or is it what happens on the inside of us? I mean, Paul is mocking these guys. He says, all these rules apparently have to do with either food items or things like drinking or things like smoking. And Paul basically said the irony of this stuff is all the things you guys are worried about. They all perish with use. In other words, you know, for example, let's say some of you didn't think that cigar smoke. You thought smoking cigars was a sin. And I know some of you do. And I stood up in front of you in the congregation and I just lit a big fat Stogi. And you said, pastor, that's a sin. You need to stop smoking that cigar. And I would say, I'm killing it right now. In other words, by the time the cigar is smoked, you've killed it and you've accomplished what the person wanted you to accomplish anyway. Correct? That silly, isn't it? You see what Paul is doing here is he's actually bringing to mind the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 15. Or what happened to Matthew 15? Matthew 15, Jesus disciples had apparently eaten without washing their hands well enough. And the Pharisees came and were uptight about it. And Jesus had some words for that. The Pharisees came to Jesus. I'm in Matthew 15. And he says, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat. And Jesus says quite a bit culminating in verse 7, he says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophecy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain. They worship me teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. And he called the people to him and said, hear and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. This defiles a person. I love this line. He says, then the disciples came to him and said, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? He answered, every plant that my Heavenly Father's not planted will be rooted up. And then verse 17, Jesus says, do you not see that whatever goes into the stomach is in his expel, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. This defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual, immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anybody. In other words, the question that you got to ask yourself, and I've asked you this before, are you more concerned with the fact of being seen as a sinner or the fact that you are a sinner? Are you more concerned that people around you might look at you and say, you know, that guy is a sinner? Or are you more concerned or really concerned primarily concerned with the fact that you are a sinner? You see, when you talk about sin, it's easy to try and avoid certain things. Say, well, I don't smoke and I don't drink and I don't do these things, I must be okay. And Jesus says, bottom line is this, it's not what goes into you that makes you unclean, but what comes out of you. And the question is, is what comes out of you? He says, murders, adulteries, gossip, slander, all these things that come out, those are the things that make you unclean. And the question is, how do you deal with those? Can you deal with them by just suppressing them, or can you deal with them by actually having them taken away and changed? And that leads to the next, the last question, the question of restraint. What good is restraint in dealing with our sin? After recording to Paul is actually, it's no good at all. It's good for the purpose of restraining, but after restraining, it can't change you, it can't save you, it can't help you, it can't hold you. Why? Because unless you're changed from the inside, nothing matters. How much time do you spend trying to keep yourself from sinning? How much time do you spend worrying about, are you more worried that you're going to get caught sinning? Or are you more worried about the fact that you have sinned? Something has to happen inside you. You know, a few years ago, actually we're still living in Seattle, we're broken into, and decided at that point I talked to my sister, who's a cop, and said, you know, what do we need to do? And she said that 99% of break-ins are avoided if you have a dog. And so from that time till now, we finally got the right dog. I think we're on about dog 5.0 iteration. But at that time, I remember finding in the paper a lab that looked perfect, at least on paper. House broken, great, great with kids, and I called up the lady and said, hey, we've been broken into, I need a dog, but I especially need one that's good with little kids. What do you think? She said, this is the best dog I think I've ever bred. It's great. It's great with kids, the kids could ride them, the kids could do anything with this dog. And I said, this is great, I'll take them. And she said, one question though. She said, do you have any cats? And I said, no, I'm good there. And she said, do any of your neighbors have cats? And I said, you know, practically all my neighbors have cats. And she said, then I will not sell you this dog. And I said, why? She said, because this dog kills cats. I said, you told me it's like perfect dog with kids, you know, keep a leash on it. She's like, it is the perfect dog with kids. But this dog cannot help itself from killing any cat that it sees. And I can't say that strongly enough. And I said, why does he do that? Can't you, you know, like call a dog whisper or something, what's going on? She said the reason he does it. And it was, you know, as a pastor, you love hearing these kind of things. Just for the story, she said, it's just part of his nature. It's just what he is. You can keep a leash on him. You can put a fence around him. You can keep him in the house. But at the end of the day, he is still a cat killer. And the first chance that he has to kill a cat, he will do it. The interesting thing is that the same thing applies to you and to me. That's what Paul says. Let me read that last line to you. He says, these things, he's talking about these rules, the fences that we used to appear, he says, they indeed, they have indeed an appearance of wisdom, promoting self made religion, a set of system and severity to the body, but there are no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. In other words, you can make all the rules for yourself that you want. You can compose all the fences. You can do everything you want. But if your heart has not been fundamentally changed at the end of the day, you're still a cat killer. Why? Because it's your nature. You know, I had a mentor one time who told me he said more than once. He said, Tommy, the most, the people you need to keep an eye on in the church are families where everything looks perfect. He said, the more people, the more effort people look to make things look outwardly good and outwardly restrained and outwardly okay, the more, the more chance there is that there are major issues and sin going on in that family. And you know what? Over and over again, I've seen that to be true. Because the question is, what is it that you're putting your hope in? Are you putting your hope in and your own power to restrain yourself from sin? Or are you putting your hope in the fact that you have died with Christ? And if you've died with Christ, you've risen with him. And now Paul doesn't, he's not against restraint from sin but the question is where does it come from? Is your restraint coming from the outside enters it coming from the inside out? Do you avoid sin because you're new? You're a new person. Jesus has made you new. Think about that. Keep that in mind this week. Let's pray. Father, pray that as we look and go further into this book of Colossians that you will continue to challenge us, challenge our views of the gospel, our views of marriage and family and all these things that Paul will address in this book. In Christ's name, we pray these things. Amen. And Amen.