You all remember Let’s Make A Deal?  People dressed up in insane costumes yelling, “Monti!  Monti!  Monti!”  Which sounds a whole  better than “Wayne!  Wayne! Wayne!”  People making complete fools of themselves - hoping to make a deal - a trade - for all kinds of prizes - trading in everything they had for what Jay had in the box - or what was behind Carol and curtain number 2.

Time after time they’d bet valuable merchandise or cash.  The curtain opens and there’s a goat standing on a bale of hay - or something equally worthless.  They’d give up true riches and come away with nothing.

This was in the paper a week ago.  “The First Game Show” - “…or you can trade it for what’s behind door number one or door number two…”   Firing Squad or the bear of the noose.

The reality is that life is a whole lot more serious than Let’s Make A Deal.  And yet way too often we’re willing to trade off what is priceless for what is totally worthless.  What is actually hugely dangerous for us.

We’re in a section of Paul’s letter to the Colossians where Paul is warning the Colossians - and us as his readers - warning them about not trading away what they have in Jesus for what is hugely dangerous to their faith.

When we looked at the beginning of chapter 2 - we saw Paul writing about his struggle - his deep agonizing concern - for the Colossians.  They’d begun well in their faith - trusted in Jesus as their Savior.  Paul is encouraging them to keep going.  “To walk in Him.”  To keep focused on Him and living out their relationship with Him.  Because it is way too easy for them - for us - to not keep going.  Way to easy for us to get off focus - to get off track - and end up living some version of life that God never intended for His children to live.

2 Sundays ago - we looked at Paul warning the Colossians about exchanging God’s truth for some worthless man centered - straight from the pit of hell - philosophy.  Coming to Colossians 2:16 - Paul’s warning is about trading in God’s truth for some worthless man centered religion.

Colossians 2 - let’s read together starting at verse 16:  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.  These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in details about vision, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Let’s do some unpacking.

“Let no one” means that we’ve got a choice.  We don’t have to let someone pass judgment on us.  But there’s a danger we might.

Passing judgment - in the way that Paul is using the word - is a group activity - succumbing to religious peer pressure.  Spiritually, allowing the opinions of someone else - besides God - choosing to allow someone else to dictate how we live out our relationship with Jesus.

What Paul is writing about is what was going on behind the scenes in the Colossian Church - a belief system that scholars refer to as “The Colossian Heresy.”  Put simply - there were those in Colossae who professed to be followers of Jesus - Christians - who had taken elements of Jewish belief and elements of Christian belief and elements of pagan belief - and fused all of those together into a teaching that kind of sounded right to the Colossian believers but wasn’t even close to God’s truth.

Imagine a pool of water smooth as glass.  Throw a small stone into the center of the pool and waves - rings - start moving outward - emanations -  each ring moving farther from the center.  The idea is that the center - where the rock hit - is pure - is holy - without sin - the divine origin of all things.

Call that center god - or divine perfection - or divine purity - or nirvana if you want - Shakari.  The farther a ring gets away from the center the more distorted - the more impure - the more distorted by sin it is.

We’re out here on the outermost ring - sinful - so far away from the divine that we can’t even see the beginning of the place where you can begin to see the beginning of the place where we could begin to glimpse the purely divine.  Our mission - should we choose to accept it - somehow we have to get rid of sin and get back through those generations - or rings - to the point of our spiritual origin. 

The technical name for that teaching is “gnosticism.”  Which comes from a Greek word “gnosis” - which basically means “knowledge.”  The way to get back to the center - to that divine purity - is through “knowing” the hidden spiritual things of the universe - knowledge “genosis” of the hidden spiritual mysteries of the universes that will guide us in doing what leads to a purer life.  Which is all about religious works - what we eat or drink or the religious rituals - festivals - that we observe.

Today we know “gnoticism” as elements of Eastern Mysticism - reincarnation - trying to improve ourselves as we pass through different lifetimes.  Or Mormonism - or Masonry - with their secret rites.  Or the First Church of Christ, Scientist.  Some secret knowledge that we need to understand and some work that we have to do in order to become more like a god - what we need to do in order to measure up to what god expects of us - or whatever that divinity is out there. 

Grab this:  There were those in Colossae who professed to be followers of Jesus - Christians - who trying to pass this heresy off as God’s truth.  They said that Jesus was Himself closer to the divine - more enlightened -  so what Jesus taught is useful to guide us to higher knowledge - to lead us backwards through the emanations towards our goal of sinless perfection - divine purity.

In the way the teaching was being presented in the church in Colossae it did sound kind of like what the Apostles were teaching.  Putting off the flesh - with all of its sin.  Being one with God - the Father.  Jesus who points the way - who gives us life.  Becoming more holy.  Living in obedience to God.

Are we together?

The Colossian Heresy was messing up at lot of believers in Colossae who were really sincere in their faith but seriously in danger of trading in what they had in Jesus for something infinitely less valuable.

What Paul goes on to list - here in these verses - are parts of a religious standard - a litmus test for doing the right thing - that the Colossians were being measured against - judged by - by those that were supposedly more enlightened. 

Questions about what we eat or drink - dietary regulations.  Think Old Testament Mosaic law.  Or with regard to festivals or a new moon or a Sabbath - which probably have to do with the various holy days of the Jewish calendar.  All of which has to do with what we do in our relationship with God and why we do it.

Do these things - that the enlightened teachers said you needed to do - do these things and you get more holy.

In verse 17 - Paul writes that all these things are “a shadow of the things to come” - meaning Jesus Christ - the fullness of Who He is.

In my office I have pictures of Karen and our kids.  There are times when I stop what I’m doing and look at their pictures.  They remind me of my family.  And you say, “Well, that’s pretty neat.”  Everyone say “Awww”

But, you’d probably think I’d lost it if I put pictures of Karen and the kids  up in the office or at home - and spent time talking to them and trying to have a relationship with the pictures.  And, you’d be right.

More than loosing my mind - I would have lost touch with the people that the pictures represent.  The pictures taking the place of the people.

That’s what Paul means by shadows.  If we put a greater value on the shadow - the religious act - than the person of Jesus Christ - who He is and what God has for us in Jesus - then rather than the act leading us closer to Jesus - it gives us a false sense of that relationship.

Paul goes on in - verse 18 - Let no one disqualify you.

Imagine the winter Olympics - turning in a gold medal performance in the Luge. That might be a stretch for some of us.  But, there you are standing on the platform ready to have that gold medal draped around your neck - the national anthem played - crowds at their feet - the world is watching.  At the last minute a judge runs out and says, “His sled was 1 microgram too heavy.  He’s disqualified.”

Judgment that disqualifies.  But in Paul’s illustration the scales are rigged by the opposing team and no matter how sincere the judge may be - the judgment is wrong.

In verse 18 Paul writes that the “disqualifiers” insist on - or they’re intensely desiring - focused on asceticism and worship of angels.

Asceticism is things like fasting - wearing rough clothing - exposing ourselves to extreme temperatures - refraining from sexual relations - putting off the flesh and the desires of the flesh - whatever is self-denying - humiliating ourselves - taking us out of the picture in order to gain spiritual enlightenment.

Which might be a good thing except the desire here isn’t God.  What comes with the asceticism is the worship of angels.  

Worship of angels is about being in contact with spiritual messengers that are going to clue us in to the mysteries of the universe - knowledge that we need to get closer to holiness - the center point in the pond.  Asceticism is about religious experiences that are going to open us up to the teaching of spiritual guides.

Go into just about any book store - and look at the religion section - or the self-help section - and it is amazing how many books are written which claim spiritual insight which is completely opposed to what God has revealed about Himself.  People that are trying to tap into a higher plane of reality.  People desiring to help us realize god in us or to help us get in touch with some cosmic universal oneness.

There is a huge confusion today about what it means to be “spiritual” - what it takes to be more spiritually enlightened.  Paul warns us that even people claiming to be Christians can get messed up by this.

A while back there was a movement called the Toronto Blessing - where - at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church they experienced “holy laughter” - people rolling all over the floor laughing uncontrollably.

That may sound strange to us - but people came from all over North America - and other places - to go to Toronto to get this blessing.  Then they would travel back to their own churches and people would start laughing uncontrollably.

They said that this was a powerful new movement of the Holy Spirit and God was bringing a great awakening.  You have to experience this if you were going to grow deeper in your relationship with God.

One Sunday I was watching a church service on TV.  A church service in San Jose where a really well known preacher - if I told you who you’d know who.  His name’s not important.  Point being he had cred.  A well known preacher preaching and telling the congregation about what was happening in Toronto.  How laughter was the way to go.

He kept going on and on about laughter - urging the people to let go and experience the laughter that the Holy Spirit would give.  Finally, one lady in the front row started laughing.  Everyone else just sat there and watched.

Where in the Bible is the justification for this?  A self-driven religious act the desire of which is spiritual blessing - enlightenment.  Where does God say that we have to roll on the floor and laugh if we’re want to grow and experience a deeper relationship with God?

Paul writes that these judgers go “on in detail about visions.”  Meaning that they keep going on and on about this.  It’s the only thing they talk about.

They’re “puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind.”  Meaning they’ve got an inflated sense of themselves that’s driven by their own egos.  They are impressed with their own knowledge and really happy to get recognition from others.

Paul warns - verse 19 - they’re not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

There’s a huge contrast here.  Let’s be clear on what Paul is getting at.

God’s desire is to enlighten us.  God’s desire is to lead us deeper in relationship with Him and to grow us in holiness.  Its Satan’s desire to defuse, delude, and deceive - to get us focused anywhere else but on God - even our own acts of religious piety.

Churches have come apart - because individuals will each claim a special revelation from God - a spiritual insight - and rather than subjecting it to the Bible - to God’s truth - and seeing if it fits to what the Bible says - or handling the situation and the individuals involved according to Scripture - the truth of God’s word - each side claims that their revelation is to be followed - and so the church comes apart.

When we seek to exalt ourselves - even if its in our own minds - doing things in such a way that we get credit for - our acts of service - our self-denial - offered up to God - we all are in serious trouble.  But if we keep Jesus as the Head - focusing our lives in surrender to Him - not everyone else - not us.  But God.  At the heart level seeking with all that we are what meets with His approval - He is going to lead us closer to Him and each other - to His glory.

Let’s be really clear on this.

Everything we have and everything we are comes from God.  If there’s anything that we’ve been blessed with - the source is God.  Life is about God not us.  If we can get our hearts and minds wrapped around that truth we can begin to process what Paul is getting at here.

The Pharisees boasted that they fasted twice a week - every Monday and Thursday.  They made sure that everyone knew they were fasting.  They paraded around in public with these long sorrowful faces.  Went without washing and shaving - without paying attention to basic hygiene - didn’t use deodorant or Fufu juice.  They’d sprinkle ashes on their heads to show everyone how humbled before God they were - how deeply sorrowful for their sins.

They were hugely sincere in their pursuit of God and sincerely desired greatly for others to join them in the sincerity of that pursuit.  But, they’d gotten so focused on the pursuit that they’d messed up on the motivation.

We need to be honest with ourselves.  There’s a fine line between  being motivated by self - our own sensuousness - a fine line between seeking ourselves and seeking after God -  opening our hearts up to God - in humiliation, sorrow over our sins, broken heartedness, repentance, consecration, seeking God’s will to be done in our lives.

Paul’s warning about human judgment comes with a choice - to succumb to peer pressure about what a relationship with God is all about - to place our lives under the judgment of men - or to keep Jesus as the Head and to seek His evaluation and transformation of our lives.

Let’s go on.  In verses 20 to 23 Paul’s warning is to Watch out for [Zombies] - well… Living Dead. 

Let’s read these verses together:  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations:  “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.

Paul’s question:  If in Christ you’ve died to the elemental spirits - which we looked at back in verse 8 - elemental spirits meaning Satan and his minions at work in the world and our living in bondage to all that - spiritually dead - if we’ve died to all that why are we still trying to live like the world?  If we’ve been made alive in Christ why are we still trying to live like dead people?

Paul writes about “regulations” - “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.”  Regulations - he says - which on the surface appear wise - which appear to keep us moving forward spiritually - but in the long run really have no value.  They can’t get us to where we need to be spiritually.  Ultimately, they’re keeping us bound to a kind of living death.

Chuck Swindol, in his book, “The Grace Awakening,” writes this:  One of my favorite stories comes from a man who used to be in our church.  When he was a youth worker many years ago in an ethnic community, he attended a church that had Scandinavian roots.  Being a rather forward-looking and creative young man, he decided he would show the youth group a missionary film.  We're talking simple, safe, black-and-white religious-oriented movie.

That film projector hadn't been off an hour before a group of the leaders in the church called him in and asked him about what he had done.  They asked, “Did you show the young people a film?”  In all honesty he responded, “Well, yeah, I did.”

“We don't like that,” they replied.  Without trying to be argumentative, the youth worker reasoned, “Well, I remember that at the last missionary conference, our church showed slides....”  One of the church officers put his hand up signaling him to cease talking.  Then, in these words, he emphatically explained the conflict:  “If it's still, fine. If it moves, sin!”  You can show slides, but when they start movin', you're gettin' into sin. (1)

Larry Osborne - an E Free Church pastor down in San Diego - Larry writes about “Accidental Pharisees.”  Larry writes that accidental Pharisees are “people like you and me who, despite the best intentions and a desire to honor God, unwittingly end up pursuing an overzealous model of faith that sabotages the work of the Lord we think we’re serving.  The problem is not spiritual zeal.  That’s a good thing.  We’re all called to be zealous for the Lord.   The problem is unaligned spiritual passion, a zeal for the Lord that fails to line up with the totality of Scripture.” (2)

Let’s be clear.  The Pharisees didn’t wake up one day and decide to dump a bunch of religious regulations on people.  The spiritually enlightened in Colossae didn’t have a meeting and decide to go off the deep end spiritually.

The Pharisees were sincerely intent on obeying God - on spiritually doing the right thing before God.  They worshiped God.  Studied God’s law.  Spoke out in defense of God.  Desired others to join them in obeying God.  We tend to think of them as spiritual losers.  But in a significant number of ways they were right on.

Problem was they began to think of themselves as the spiritual elite. And others as being somewhat less than that.  They even came down on Jesus - on God - because He didn’t measure up to their standard of righteousness.

Which may be true of us.  We may be well intentioned.  But, it is way too easy for us to fall into the trap of seeing others through the lenses of our version of righteousness.  What we know is a Godly form of music or dress or mannerism or language or service or lifestyle or whatever… 

Easy to do if we forget about what it means to die to ourselves and the crud of this world and to live because of Christ.  Easy to do if we think that how we live is more important that why we live.

Christianity is not a religion of regulations - and ways to deny ourselves things - Christianity is a living relationship with Jesus Christ.  That doesn’t mean that once we come to know Jesus we can do whatever we want.  It does mean that what controls our lives comes from within.  The regulation doesn’t come from a bucket list of don’ts but from a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.

Paul’s bottom line is our relationship with Jesus Christ - Head of the Church - our Savior - the reason and means of life.

Thinking about what Paul warns the Colossians about - and us - and what that can mean for us as we head out of here into the world out there.  Something for us to hang on to:  Guilt will motivate us for a time but grace will keep us going forever.

Guilt is all about performance - the things we do for God - to earn His favor - His blessing - because we’re focused on where we fall short of God - His holiness - His righteousness.  All the things people tell us we gotta do for God:  Church attendance - tithing - on and on - adding to our feelings of guilt and spiritual inadequacy if we don’t.

Any area of ministry or just where we’re living our lives at home or school or in the community.  Or the time we give serving here.  The hours we put in - like with AWANA or Children’s Worship or going down to Mexico - filling shoeboxes - playing instruments - singing - working with tech stuff - or just being here on a Sunday morning when we have so many other things we could be doing - catching up on sleep being one of them.  But we’re here.  Being sincerely zealous for God.  Being committed.  In this place that we’re sacrificing our money to pay for and our time to serve with this congregation.  How we’re giving and serving more than some others are.

We may be here worshiping.  But if we're thinking about all that we’re doing for God - thinking about all that we expect from God because we’re here - we may actually be worshipping ourselves and not God.  Doing stuff for God which is really about our trying to deal with our own feelings of guilt and spiritual inadequacy.  Which we know ultimately comes up empty.

When we loose touch with Jesus - His power - His presence in our lives - our relationship with Him becomes empty and worthless.  Church focused on us - the worshippers - rather than on Jesus - the one to be worshipped - can never satisfy - never lead us in the life we deeply crave.

Like a hamster on a wheel.  Round and round running really fast without getting any place.  Most people give up.  Either they walk away physically or check out spiritually.  Who wants to live with unending guilt? 

God’s grace eliminates guilt.  By faith when we accept what God has done for us in Jesus - by God’s grace - His undeserved applied blessing - forgiveness and new life in Jesus - we no longer are guilty before God.  We no longer need to keep trying to measure up and achieve our own righteousness - to earn our holiness.

Often - in talking about Law and grace - we talk about a courtroom scene.  A man is brought before the judge - guilty of breaking the law - condemned without hope of pardon.  The judge’s son comes and offers to pay the penalty for the prisoner - offers to take his punishment.  The prisoner is then set free before the law.  It’s a great illustration of what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

The struggle is that we understand that intellectually - but practically - we have hard time living by grace - living the way God intended.

Dr. Harry Ironside - a great pastor and Bible teacher of the last century - shares a true account about a conference speaker who was coming by train from Flagstaff, Arizona to Oakland.  The speaker was talking to a group of youth about law and grace.

He said this, “I came here from Flagstaff on the train, and we stopped over for several hours in Barstow. There in the station’s waiting room I noticed signs on the walls which said, ‘Do Not Spit On The Floor.’  That was the rule there.  I looked down on the floor, and observed that nobody had paid any attention to the law.”

“But when we got here to Oakland I was invited to stay in a lovely, Christian home.  As we sat in the living room I looked around and noticed pretty pictures on the walls, but no signs which said, ‘Do Not Spit On The Floor.’  I got down on my hands and knees and felt the rug and, you know, nobody had spit on the floor.  In Barstow it was law but in the home in which I’m staying its grace.” (3)

When we believe - not just understand - but believe with a sincere faith - that we live under grace.  When we see ourselves as God sees us - forgiven - restored - accepted - the past washed in the blood of Jesus - our actions will change.

Drawing closer to Jesus, the issues of our heart that we’re once so important begin to fade.  Attitudes and sins just don’t have the same meaning.  The programs and movies and music and images and stuff we put in our minds.  The words we speak.  The attitudes we harbor.  Our thoughts towards others.  The addictions we allow ourselves.  They’re no longer acceptable.

We don’t need to wallow in sin or prop ourselves up with pride.  We don’t need to condemn others with criticism.  But, we’re freed to love with a pure heart even those who criticize us.   Freed to go on living in the life that God offers to each one who will come to Jesus as the means of their salvation.

If we really want to mess-up our faith - then we need to perform rituals that have no meaning for us - to seek guidance from our spiritual experiences and not the Word of God - and base our relationship with Jesus on a list of don’ts.

These have the appearance of wisdom.  But they have no value.  They may look good.  But they will come up empty.

Because the bottom line of life is the substance not the shadow.  Jesus.  What God has done for us in Him.  If we’ve died to ourselves - surrendering our lives to God through Jesus then we have no need to submit ourselves to any other peer or judge of our lives - not to any other “truth.”  Only to the one Who holds our lives in His hands.

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1. Chuck Swindoll, The Grace Awakening, Word, 1990, p. 160-161

2. Larry Osborne, “Accidental Pharisees - Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the other Dangers of Overzealous Faith,  Zondervan, 2012

3. J. Vernon McGee, Through The Bible Commentary, volume 5, page 433

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.