08 - No More Chasing Shadows 2009

16 “Therefore, don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink (Meaning—Pay no regard to anyone who sits in judgment on you as to legal observances in respect to foods), or for not celebrating certain religious festivals (yearly feasts), or a new moon (monthly ceremonies) or Sabbaths (the day of atonement and feast of tabernacles, which have all come to an end with the appearance of Christ).”

Paul is telling them to refuse to allow Judaizers—those that tried to place on Christians the O.T. laws and rules—to condemn or stand in judgment on them. For instance, the Judaizers tried to decree, not what the church could or couldn’t eat and drink, but WHEN they could eat or drink; in other words, they demanded certain times of fasting.

Paul says that the reason these things should be shunned is:

17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.”

Paul is teaching us that the feasts, like the Feast of Tabernacles, the Passover Feast, and so on, were pointing to the coming of the Messiah, Christ Jesus. They were types and shadows of future realities.

The Passover, for instance, pointed to the day that the blood of God’s ultimate Lamb, Jesus, would cause death and judgment to “Pass over” those that put their faith in Him.

But once the real thing appeared—the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross—the Passover was no longer necessary to observe. It had only been a SHADOW of things to come.

So don’t ever, says Paul, allow someone to pass judgment on you for not observing something that only served as a shadow, especially since what the shadow had pointed to now is here!

He goes on by saying for the second time:

18 “Let no one cheat you of your reward…”

In 2:8, Paul warned them not to be cheated by empty philosophies. Now he’s warning them again to let no one act as an umpire against you, telling you what is right or wrong contrary to N.T. teaching. Disregard him who tries it, laugh at him; the prize for your walk will be awarded by Christ Jesus, not some legalistic, misguided judge.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”—Col. 3: 23-24

Then he talks about phony humility:

“Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and self-abasement…”

Self-abasement is the same thing as asceticism: Asceticism is the practice of self-denial and renunciation of worldly pleasure in order to attain a higher degree of spirituality.

For instance, asceticism was practiced by monks who wore sackcloth, or went barefoot in extreme heat or cold.

Asceticism is man’s attempt to crucify the flesh by punishing the flesh. But it doesn’t work. The N.T. teaches that the only way to crucify the flesh is by the power of the Holy Spirit operating within you.

Ro. 8:13 “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.”

And next Paul warns again:

“Let no one cheat you…insisting on worship of angels…”

These false teachers tried to prove their so-called humility by worshipping angels, and insisted that the Colossian Christians do the same. But Paul has already shown that Jesus Christ is infinitely higher than the angels:

16 “For through him (Jesus) God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world (angels). Everything was created through him and for him.”

Paul is saying, “Don’t let anyone act like an umpire over you, telling you that you must humble yourself through self-denial, worship angels that scripture never once tells us to worship, or observe certain feasts and holy days in order to receive your prize!”

Next, Paul reveals where these false teachers got all this stuff:

“….taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen…”

These false teachers were claiming to have had visions instructing them to observe these things. There is nothing new under the sun!

Listen to what Paul warned about this in Galatians:

“I can't believe your fickleness—how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message! It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head. Let me be blunt: If one of us—even if an angel from heaven!—were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed. I said it once; I'll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed.”—Gal. 1:6-9

Paul says, “Even if you claim to have seen an angel, it doesn’t matter. If the message is anything other than salvation by grace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, let it be accursed!”

This whole thing of validating errant teachings by claiming to have had a vision or visitation from God is everywhere.

MORMONS: During the 1820s, a man named Joseph Smith worked as a farm laborer and developed his religious ideas based on divine, supernatural encounters he claims to have had. After 1827, by his own account, he yearly visited a book written in a hieroglyphic script on golden plates buried in a nearby hill; the book’s location, he said, had been disclosed to him by an angel. In 1830 he completed the translation of these plates, “by the gift and power of God,” and published the Book of Mormon.

Yet once the Book of Revelation was completed, the Bible was finished. John warns as he finished the final verses of the Bible’s last book,

“And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.”—22:18

ISLAM: Muhammad periodically withdrew to a cave outside Mecca to meditate and pray for guidance. During one of these retreats he experienced a vision of the archangel Gabriel, who proclaimed him a prophet of God. He was greatly perplexed by the experience but was reassured by his wife, and, as new revelations followed, he came to accept his prophetic mission.

Muhammad proclaimed his own message, the Qur'an, to be the last revealed Book and himself to be the last of the prophets, consummating and superseding the earlier ones.

But the Bible is very clear about the fallacy of this. Heb. 1:1-2 “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.”

Muhammad was 700 A.D.!

Paul says that the problem with those that seek to marginalize Christ or add to His finished work is:

“…Their sinful minds have made them proud…” –vs. 18

And even more importantly,

19 “…they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body.”

Paul is saying, “How can these Judaizers, or false visionaries, pronounce any judgment at all on the body of Christ or any of its members when their carnal minds have never had an inkling about the wonderful spiritual body of Christ and about its still more wonderful Head, the Lord Jesus Christ!”

The Apostle then adds that the whole body of Christ does its divine growing “by constantly receiving supply of vitality and by constantly being knit together as one developing unit.”

“For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.”

From the head, Jesus Christ, the supply flows out to every part of the body and at the same time knits it together into one spiritual, divine, living and growing organism!

These critical Judaizers had never once embraced the Head, so had never once been a part of the body they criticized!

So Paul says, “If they criticize you, judge you, and try to cheat you of your reward, tell them where to get off!

Then we learn a wonderful fact of what the Head, Jesus Christ, did for us:

20 “You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world.”

You have been entombed with Him in the baptism in which you were also raised up to walk in newness of life!

We were there on the cross with Jesus. That is, our old man of sin—the sin nature—was crucified with Christ.

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.”—Ro. 6:6-7

“Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call!”

Because our old, sinful self was crucified with Christ, we no longer respond to it as a dead slave no longer responds to his master’s demands.

“So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?

You’re dead to these old rules and laws that cannot save you. You are no longer chasing the shadows. That which was casting the shadow has now fully arrived—the once for all sacrifice of God’s Lamb!

22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.”

Summary:

The real thing has come—Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

The shadows have passed away, the reality has arrived.

You will not live a holy life by self-denial, but by the inward dwelling Holy Spirit’s power.

Don’t allow anyone to cheat you of what Christ has done for you by judging the liberty you have in Christ. Your prize shall come from Him alone!

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