So like I said, this morning we're continuing Colossians, looking at Colossians 2 verses 9 through 16. But again, before we start, we'll kind of take a step back and think about where we are in Colossians. We'll start with our purpose statement for Colossians. Colossians calls us to see how truly glorious Jesus is, and to root all of our hope in Him, knowing that He is true wisdom to meet our every need. This will prevent us from instead pursuing the hopes and the purposes of this world and being captured by worldly wisdom." So, we looked at the first part of that sentence, kind of in the first section of Colossians, and now we're entering the second part, the second sentence there. And so, we split Colossians into four parts. In approximately chapter 1 we saw rooted in the Gospel Paul holds up that the Gospel is what they need to chase after. And at the center of the Gospel is Christ and Christ is all glorious. So why would they want to chase after anything else? then approximately chapter 2 is going to be refusing worldly wisdom. If they're so directed at chasing after Christ, then why would they turn and listen to what the world has to offer? It's foolishness. It's something that should not be happening. But if they're not chasing after the world's wisdom, what should be happening in their lives? And we get there to chapter 3, we're going to see that they should be being renewed in Christ. And then in the latter part, chapter 4, we're going to see that Paul is building relationships here. He has a true care and knowledge for the Colossians, so we'll see that this is a relational truth. And so last week we started the second section of Colossians, Refusing Worldly Wisdom. And we saw that Paul's main concern, that the Colossians were in danger of being captured by worldly philosophy. Arguments that might sound good, they might even seem spiritual, but ultimately they're rooted in human traditions or in the elements of this world. And importantly, they were not rooted in Christ. They were not according to Christ. And this was a huge danger, one that threatened to carry them off from Christ. To carry them off, as Paul says, as foils of war. And so Paul emphatically warns them against this. See to it that you are not taken captive. But then Paul gives a glorious reason why they didn't need to be enticed by the wisdom of this world. And it's because they have everything that they need in Christ. They are completely filled in Christ. They are completely cleansed in Christ. They are completely alive in Christ. They are completely forgiven in Christ. And they are completely victorious in Christ. The world has nothing left to offer them. And so we ended last week with the question, is everything in my life according to Christ? Are my principles and my passions according to Christ, or are they rooted in this world? Are the things that I'm devoted to, even the distinctives that I follow, are they according to Christ, or are they more in line with the things of this world? Am I in danger of being captured, or am I refusing worldly wisdom? And so as we go on this week, we're going to keep thinking about that question. Is everything in my life according to Christ? And so in verses 16 through 19, Paul is going to very helpfully give some examples of things that could be worldly wisdom in our lives. And he's going to demonstrate how to identify them and how to combat them. In some ways the examples that Paul gives are very far away from us. They're things that don't always touch on our lives. They're not things that we're generally tempted by anymore. We don't generally go around following Jewish festivals and new moons. We're not tempted by animism and angel worship. But on the other hand, the ideas at the roots of these things are still very active in our world. They're still parts of the elements of the world. The demonic forces that lied behind these things are still around us. And so we can see many comparable things. We still see rules about food. We see arguments about honoring days. We see people listening to extra biblical wisdom. And so these examples are powerful, kind of in two ways. Number one, because they're not exactly what we're facing, but they give us a way to think through what we're going to face. It helps us diagnose and combat worldly wisdom around us. And as we should expect, the way Paul identifies and combats worldly wisdom is by taking it back to Christ. How are these things according to Christ? And so that's going to be Paul's big question. Is it according to Christ? Are these things according to Christ? And so let's read Colossians 2, 16-19. He finished off talking about how Christ had just defeated all the all the principalities and powers that were in the world. He put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. I'll have it up here this morning as well. You can read along in your Bibles or follow along on the screen. He says, 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 in worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a 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. So we're taking a pretty short section this morning. In fact, it almost got tacked on to last week, but once you see how long my sermon is this morning, you'll be very glad that it wasn't. But I felt that there was enough here in these verses, we should start to expand on these this morning, think through them carefully. And so for our proposition this morning, it's gonna be, we can identify worldly wisdom by those things that aren't flowing from Christ, and aren't flowing to Christ. And so identify how this idea came from Christ and how it is pushing you towards Christ. Both in theory, I can map it out, but also in practice. Is this coming from Christ in my life and is it leading me to Christ? And then we'll look at three points this morning. Paul's gonna say, don't substitute shadows for substance. Don't substitute shadows for substance. Then it'll say, don't substitute novelty for knowledge. Don't substitute novelty for knowledge. Instead, hold fast to the head. That's going to be Paul's conclusion. We need to hold fast to Christ. So we'll start with our first point. Don't substitute shadows for substance. And so we're gonna start with verses 16 and 17 this morning. 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. So as we look at these first verses, Paul's first set of examples seem to have to do with Jewish law and how it applies to the believer. And it's a little hard to determine exactly what Paul's referencing here, because he doesn't describe the actual arguments that were going on in Colossae. But it seems that some teachers in Colossae, if we kind of read into the book, and this is a little reading into the book, so hold it loosely, but it seems that some teachers in Colossae were teaching that there was wisdom in following these Old Testament laws. You could be a Christian without them, but following them would add to your experience of salvation. These are wise things. The mature believer will love these things and run after them. And I say that because this passage doesn't sound like parallel passages, for example, in Galatians, where Paul is very upset that some of them are falling days and years and are bound to foods. Paul reacts very violently, almost, in Galatians to this concept. Well, in Colossians, Paul is saying, let no one pass judgment on you. These things aren't all that important. And so it seems like in Galatia, these things had been tied up into the gospel. You couldn't have the gospel without these things. And so Paul reacts very harshly against that. But in Colossae, Paul is less harsh. And perhaps it reflects less integration into the gospel. There wasn't a prevailing idea, at least yet, although Paul doesn't want them to fall down that path unless it comes to that. But there wasn't a prevailing idea yet that you had to follow these things to be a Christian. Perhaps they were just the mature believer needs to follow these, though the wise person would do this. But Paul still obviously considers them dangerous and warns them, not with the harshness of Galatians, but he warns them. And so let's try to tease apart these examples and see what we're supposed to learn from them. And so Paul starts by saying, let no one pass judgment on you. And so I think one of the first things we need to do to understand this passage is to take it to other New Testament passages that talk about food and day regulations. Because it actually was argued quite a bit in the New Testament. What are we supposed to do? We have these Old Testament rules. What are we going to do with them? So we need to go to other passages and start synthesizing, putting them together, trying to understand what Paul is trying to teach in each of these passages. And so we could go to Romans 14, which sounds a lot like Colossians 2. We read the whole chapter this morning. I'll just read verses 2-6 again. He says, one person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. For God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands and falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God. And so Paul doesn't want us passing judgment on one another in these issues because we're all seeking Christ together. He's saying, be clear in your own mind and seek Christ with these things. Don't be arguing with each other about these secondary, smaller issues. But then we could contrast this with other teachings that happen. So on the other hand, Paul reacts with much more fervor in Galatians 4, which I've referenced earlier. Galatians 4, 9 through 11. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that I may have labored over you in vain. And so Paul is worried that the Galatians are losing the gospel by binding themselves to rules about things like days and food. And so Paul will say something similar in 1 Timothy 4, 1-3. He says, Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars. I'm sorry, to the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. So to the Romans, Paul says, get along. These things aren't that important. Don't pass judgment on each other. But to the Galatians and to Timothy, he says, you guys are following days and season and month and years. I'm worried that you're losing the gospel. So sometimes he reacts, It's okay, sometimes he says, these rules are really endangering you. But on yet another hand, so I guess now we need to have three hands to balance all these different things. Paul reacts in the opposite manner towards the Corinthians. We could come to 1 Corinthians 8 through 13. Paul says, food will not commend us to God. We're no worse off if we do not eat, no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees, I'm sorry, for if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brothers stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brothers stumble. And so, to the Galatians, Paul admonishes them sternly for having too many rules. To the Corinthians, he admonishes them strongly for having too much freedom. You guys have taken freedom out of context and are following things that should not be following, giving yourself freedom. And so, I think a good summary of Paul's teaching here is that you can have too much freedom or too much regulation. There's a spectrum of ways that we can approach any issue. We can run towards one side and make a huge number of rules that you have to follow, whether that's rules that you have to do these to be a believer, or even rules that, well, it's the best thing to do. The wise believer will follow it. And then you can run towards the other side and have freedom. I can do whatever I want. There's nothing that binds me. There's no reason I would stop anything. And so the Galatians, they were focusing on rules. They started making rules about what Christians could and could not eat, what days a Christian needed to follow or not follow. To be a Christian meant you had to bind yourself to Jewish laws about food and to bind yourself to Jewish festivals. You needed to be a Jew to be a Christian. The Corinthians, on the other hand, rejected any concept of order. They had so much freedom that they could participate in demon worship. That's fine. We'll go worship at the table of demons because there's nothing binding us. And they could eat in a way that would harm their brothers. Eating food at their tables because food didn't really mean anything. There's no regulations about how we eat. We can do whatever we want. And both these things were dangerous and wrong. Demanding too much freedom or too much regulation in any area of life is dangerous, but there's a lot of ground in the middle where we can have different positions without pursuing too much freedom or too much regulation. One person might have a more ordered life and one person may have more freedom in certain areas of life. That doesn't mean we're at the extremes. There are extremes in either direction. The answer to too much regulation isn't running all the way to absolute freedom. The answer to absolute freedom isn't to run towards adding more and more rules. We sometimes call these legalism and licentiousness, and it seems like people bounce back and forth between them a lot and skip over all the middle ground that happens in the center. But this middle ground, I think that's where the Colossians found themselves right now. Paul calls the church well-ordered. He says, I rejoice to see your good water. Their church wasn't running towards one extreme or the other at the moment. They were not given to foolish freedoms nor pursuing excessive rules. But there were some in their midst that suggested that these things might be good to follow. Looking down on those who didn't, starting to pass judgment on them. Look, I'm a better believer because I'm gonna follow these Old Testament food laws. I'm gonna follow these Old Testament days. Not giving others to have freedom to say, I'm going to follow Christ, but saying, you need to follow my way if you want to be a wise believer, a complete, mature believer. And so Paul says, don't let anyone pass judgment on you. Don't listen to them. You aren't bound by these things. But then the question comes, how do we tell if we have too much freedom or too much regulation? Because there are dangers. Paul talks about dangers of going too much towards regulation. Paul talks about dangers of going too much towards freedom. And so how do we know if we're in this middle ground, especially if there's going to be disagreements, and there will be, how do we know that we haven't run towards one extreme or the other, or the other person hasn't run towards one extreme or the other? How can we know if we're able to get along together? How do we know when the gospel is being compromised? Do we balance Galatians and Colossians and Corinthians against each other? And that's what Paul's gonna talk about next. He says, there are shadows and there are substance. There are shadows and there is substance. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. And I think Paul carefully chose these Jewish laws as examples because they really call us to think about what things are required of us. And so we have to step back and say, why did God make these laws in the first place? What's going on here? One way of understanding this is to ask the question, is food important in and of itself? Is there something important in food or is a day important in and of itself? Is there something to that day that becomes important that we need to chase after that day? And Paul's answer would be no. Food and days were shadows. They were pointing forward to something. Their importance didn't lie in themselves, but in what they had pointed to. And so even God's rules about foods and days were not important in and of themselves. And that should really make us think. Even the rules that God had given in the Old Testament were not important in and of themselves. They were means to an end. They were not an end in themselves. They were means to an end. God designed them to point forward to Christ. They were designed to help those before Christ understand and pursue their Savior and faith. And they were designed so that as we look at them after Christ, we can understand how they're pointing us to pursue our Savior and faith. They aren't an end in themselves. They're a means to an end. And Hebrews calls us to see this constantly. Hebrews calls us to see this shadow or this pointing character of the Old Testament laws. We can go to Hebrews 8, 1-6. Now, the point is, what we're saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, and the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. Paul says, these things that made up the Old Testament, they were a shadow and a copy. They were pointing forward to realities. And so he finishes up in Hebrews 10.1. He kind of goes into a long section talking about the shadow and copy nature. And he says, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities. And then he'll go on and talk about what that means in Hebrews. But he's saying the law was a shadow of the things to come. It wasn't bad, it wasn't useless, but it was a means to an end of pointing towards the reality of the things to come. And so if these things were not an end to themselves, they were a means to an end, a pointer to Christ. Then when we have Christ, these things don't bind us anymore. They're nothing on their own. We don't need to pursue them for their own sake. To pursue these things in faith before the revelation of Christ was to be pursuing a Savior that was yet to be revealed. The Old Testament could run after and bind themselves to these things, take them on as rules and regulations, because they were grasping them in faith as grasping a Savior yet to be revealed. Now, it was just as easy back then to grasp onto those rules in the wrong way. But grasping onto them wasn't wrong, because grasping onto them could be a grasping of faith, looking for a Savior yet to be revealed. But, to pursue these things after Christ is to turn away from what has already been revealed. to love the rules rather than the substance the rules were pointing to. And so Paul calls us to see that these were shadow of the things to come, but the substance is Christ. We don't need to be pursuing such things anymore, nor do we need to be judged by those who do, because we have the fullness, the substance, not merely the shadow. Paul's calling us to weigh our options and to pursue the better one. Do Old Testament rules and regulations bring you more benefit? Or Jesus Christ? Which one are you going to dedicate yourself to? Which one is going to be more important to your life? And these Old Testament rules and regulations become an excellent example for us. These things rooted in the Old Testament scriptures should be very close to the believer's heart. We need to be careful how we talk here because we can start talking like, you don't need to pay attention to those anymore. But that's not what we're saying. These things should be close to our hearts. These were the very words of God. They were meant to reveal Christ. But because they should be close to our hearts, they should be in our hearts as the very words of God, it's very easy to make a plausible argument that we should follow these rules. Binding ourselves to these things would add to our experience of God. That should be the easiest plausible argument for anyone to make. You should feel that in you, that these were the words of God. Maybe I should bind myself to them, but then you can argue, no, I need to take hold of Christ. But if even God's rules were serving a greater purpose and have now been set aside in order that we might grasp on to Christ directly, that we might grasp on to substance and not merely shadow, then could any rule made by men bind us? If God's rules for Israel are not binding on us now, we need not submit ourselves to anyone's judgment. No one who makes a rule can bind you just because they want to make a rule. And so we could pull out a question that could be applied to any question in life. And this is how we're going to kind of summarize these set of examples. Paul is really asking, am I pursuing Christ or am I pursuing something else? Am I pursuing Christ or am I pursuing something else? That's Paul's burden here. Those who are judging each other, those who are calling others to bind their lives to these rules and regulation, their focus wasn't pursuing Christ. Their focus had turned to pursue rules. They were pursuing food. They were pursuing days. They valued shadow over substance. They started running after these things. These rules about food are what are going to direct our lives. These rules about days are going to direct our lives. The ones who are wise are the ones who know how to get these rules the exact right way. And we can bring that question to any situation in life. Am I doing this because I want to pursue Christ? And how is it, in reality, helping me pursue Christ? Is this thing that I'm doing, this rule that I'm following, this path that I'm taking, am I doing it because I want to pursue Christ? And how? Is it really helping me pursue Christ? Is the end result of this thing that I'm more satisfied in Christ? That I'm renouncing all other things in favor of Christ? Or is the end result that I'm distracted from Christ and pursuing something else? That's a question we can take to all of life. What is the fruit of this thing? I called this sermon, Root and Fruit, and here's that fruit. What is the fruit of this thing? Where is it leading me to? And I hope the answer in all of life is that it's leading us towards Christ. It's helping us pursue Christ more. And if we're pursuing Christ, then we don't need to pass judgment on one another, and we don't need to listen to the judgment of those who do. And we should apply this to the situations that Paul talks about. So Paul talks about food and days. And I don't think it's a mere coincidence that Paul discusses things that are still discussed in our day. Do we need to follow rules about food? Are there rules that I can follow about food that make me and my family more godly? How should I interact with holidays? That comes up a lot. How should I interact with holidays? Am I bound by rules and regulations not to observe a day? Or do I have so much freedom that I can pursue it in the way the world does? We could look at a day like Christmas. We could say, we need to make rules. It's immoral for anyone to celebrate Christmas. Look at how bad things happen in Christmas. And we could make a rule saying anyone who celebrates Christmas isn't as good a Christian as those who say, no that's become something of the world we don't need to follow. We could make that rule run off into too much regulation. But on the other hand we could say, I have freedom to pursue Christmas in the same way the world does. I can grasp onto the world symbolism. I can fill myself with the greed and materialism that Christmas is. Because I have freedom. There's no rules that bind me. And so there are extremes on either end. But as long as we're not dedicated to those extremes, there's probably some differences in how we live it out. There's some middle zone between those two extremes. One might say, I'm convicted in my own heart that maybe Christmas isn't the best thing because look how the world has wrapped up all these other things and it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the Bible. And the things the world is pursuing here aren't of me. But another person might really truly be pursuing Christ and Christmas. They might celebrate an Advent that is drawing them to think about the truths of Christ. And is drawing them towards Christ. They're not participating it in the way the world does, but there's freedom there. We can have different positions in that middle zone as long as we're not pursuing either end. Binding people to rules or claiming an absolute freedom. I asked Derek if I could do this on Wednesday, so I'm going to contrast me and Derek here. I think many of you know that Derek and I have different positions on the Sabbath. I think there's bad ways to do that and there are good ways to do that. We can have positions on the Sabbath. We could start doing too much regulations. Christians need to bind themselves to the Sabbath in the same way the Old Testament does. Those who don't are following Christ well enough. Or we could go to the other extreme and say Christians really can't keep any Sabbath. Christ has been our Sabbath. Just throw off the Sabbath completely. Anyone who doesn't throw off the Sabbath completely obviously isn't following Christ as well. But, and so, me and Derek disagree. I end up probably a little more towards the freedom side. I don't think the rules of the Sabbath were applied to us in many ways any more than to see that that's what Christ has done for us. Well, Derek finds some benefit in finding a day there and pursuing a day. But I think we're both in these middle zones. And I say that because I don't feel from Derek, and I hope he doesn't feel from me, that we have to convince each other that our position is right, that I need to go and throw my position on Derek, or Derek has to come and throw my position on me. Because that's the danger, is that Derek could be saying, no, just a second. Everyone who doesn't do the Sabbath this way is doing it wrong. We need to be pulling everyone towards these more regulations. Or in the same way, I could go in their own way. I could say, no, just a second, anyone who's following a day here is wrong. We need to be pulling towards more freedom. But all that happens on this axis, this axis of this day. We're just arguing about a day. But the reason I think it's okay for me and Derek to be different is the question isn't, where are we on this day right now? The question is, what are we pursuing? And I hope that both of us are pursuing Christ. I sense that in Derek, that he's following a day because it's helping him pursue Christ. And I hope he can feel for me that I am not pursuing that day because it's helping me pursue Christ. Our axis isn't here. Our axis is vertical towards Christ. It's not whether these regulations are right or wrong or what the absolute best way is. It's are these things helping me pursue Christ and they're not explicitly condemned in the Bible or in the New Testament explicitly commanded. So we can have differences on those things. We can agree to disagree because we aren't bound up in this argument. We don't need to win this argument. We need to pursue Christ together. And the glorious thing is, But as we do that, we're actually pursuing each other. As we're pursuing Christ, I like that triangle there. Because if we're pursuing Christ together, then we're pursuing each other. We're going to keep finding more and more common ground as we look at this issue. Because we're not pursuing the rule. We're not pursuing the regulations. We're not pursuing the sense of freedom. We're pursuing Christ. And that's going to draw us together. I don't know how that's going to draw us together exactly, but over time and assuredly at eternity, we're going to find ourselves together in Christ on that issue. And so we can agree to disagree because this isn't our axis. Our axis is Christ. And as long as your axis is in Christ, then you should be in agreement with each other. If you're really pursuing Christ together, then we can have differences and not pass judgment on each other. And so the question is, where is your axis? Where are the passions and positions of your life leading? Examine them. Make sure it's Christ. Make sure that it's not throwing all your weight into this rule or into this freedom. If you're pursuing a rule or a freedom, you're on this axis. You're not looking towards Christ and those things. No other pursuit is worth it. At best, other pursuits are merely shadows. And pursuing shadows is running from Christ. Pursuing shadows breaks Christian fellowship. Pursuing shadows is pursuing mere emptiness. So pursue Christ. So that brings us to our first kids question this morning. So for our kids questions, Paul is going to give us two helpful questions. So what is Paul's first helpful question? The answer is, is this helping me love Jesus? Is this helping me love Jesus? We can go to all of our life and say that. Is this thing helping me love Jesus? Now, again, I need to be a little careful here because it sounds, perhaps, a little bit like I'm saying there are no absolute rules for the Christian. If I think anything is helping me follow Jesus, then that's great. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that there's a lot within Scripture that we have leeway in, that there's not exact descriptions. But Scripture is really clear about some things. Get rid of all sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desire, covetousness. which has idolatry, and a count of these, the wrath of God is coming. Paul's gonna get to those. We're not saying, well, if you feel like this thing that is clearly stated against scripture is helping you follow Jesus, that's okay. I'm saying, where scripture is silent, where scripture is less clear, we can then take these and add them on top. Is this thing really helping me love Jesus? Is it helping me run after Jesus? And so that's Paul's first helpful question. Is this thing helping me love Jesus? And then we'll move towards our second point. Don't substitute novelty. Oh, sorry kids. I thought there was a kids question there. Hopefully you got it down. It wasn't in my notes. Okay, so don't substitute novelty for knowledge. So for our next point we'll continue on into verse 18. So Paul says, Let no one disqualify you. Insisting on asceticism and worship of angels. Going on in detail about visions. Puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind. And not holding fast to the head. Not holding fast to the head. And so Paul's second set of examples seems to be novel religious practices. Some teachers were calling believers to asceticism. The word here actually literally in Greek means willful humility or perhaps an assumed humility. Usually we understand it as religiously depriving yourself of something. Saying that, no, I'm going to get rid of all these things because that makes me a better person. That makes me a better Christian. I'm wiser because I can restrict what I do. Other teachers were calling believers to understand the spiritual realm more fully. To understand and revere the hierarchy of angels and principalities and powers. Because if they understood the spiritual realm, they'd find more fulfillment as a Christian. Others held out new revelation from God. They were wiser believers. They were filled with visions. And they called other believers to follow their visions. I and my visions can lead you to God in a better way. And Paul addresses these arguments by saying, let no one disqualify you. Let no one disqualify you. And I mentioned this briefly on Wednesday for those of you who were here, but the Greek word translated disqualify in the ESV, some of your other versions use a different word here, and that's because the word's a little hard to put, or it looks funny if you put a direct translation down. It's a word that means to umpire or to arbitrate. Let no one be umpiring against you. Let no one be arbitrating against you. Someone who can determine who wins and who loses. And they're standing against you and saying, you're losing right now. I'm ruling you out. You missed the base. You're out. And so we need to think about the examples that Paul's holding up here in the second set. These examples are somewhat different than the first set. And the first thing that stands out is none of these were commanded in Scripture. We're starting to step away from the Scriptures. The first set are all things that were rooted in Scripture, which is why you can make such great plausible arguments for why we need to bind ourselves to them. But now Paul is stepping away from that. These things are rooted in visions. We could say in new knowledge, in someone's good ideas about how to be a better Christian, how to live a better life, how to make your life better. And so, these teachers were puffed up with themselves. In their own minds, they knew what God wanted. And they wanted everyone else to know what he wanted. They want everyone to follow their way. Hey, I've got this better idea. I've got this better knowledge, this better vision. Come listen to me. Take my wisdom. And that sounds a little bit like we could just write them off. OK, you guys are crazy. In fact, some of these things sound to us like maybe they were crazy people. But these things weren't sounding crazy. Their ideas sounded good. They sounded very religious, especially in their culture at the time. These things would have sounded very religious. So we shouldn't just write these things off as sounding somewhat crazy because they aren't existing in the culture around us. Instead, we should think about religious arguments can sound good and still be something that someone made up. Their ideas sounded good. They sounded religious. They were giving up something to demonstrate your devotion. They were revering angelic powers. They were receiving communication from God. What could be better than that? But to listen to those who have new ideas, new visions, better revelation from God, is what Paul would say, it's to let someone else umpire your salvation. You just put someone else in the place to decide what your salvation is about. Someone else is claiming to have new and better knowledge of what God wants. These teachers believed they were better Christians than other believers. That they led better lives because they had these new, these better practices. If only you'd listen to them, you'd know what God wants. Paul says, no, no, don't let anyone disqualify you. He's saying, don't let other people mediate your salvation because they think they have better knowledge than you. No matter how religious or how godly their novel teaching sounds, they can't bind you with it. Whether they're calling for false humility and restrictions on things that God has given us to use and enjoy, or whether they're encouraging you to find mystic revelation and touch the spirit world, you need not follow any of them. No one else needs to arbitrate your salvation. You don't need to bow down to rules made by men. No one has special knowledge that can make you wiser, that can direct your life. But we say that and then we need to ask a question. How do we distinguish between rules made by men and listening to a godly leader who is calling us to a wise path? Because we could just say, you don't need to listen to anyone. Anything said by men is wrong. You umpire your own salvation. Or rather, we should say Christ umpires our salvation. We don't need someone else to. But there's a question. Where do we distinguish between rules made by men and listening to God and leaders who are teaching us wisdom? Because the danger here is that we would hear Paul's warning and throw off all teaching, reject all avenues of authority in Christ. But that would be a terrible fallacy in the other direction. Kind of that same thing that we did before. We could say, You don't need these rules and regulation, but the answer isn't to run towards absolute freedom and saying there's nothing that binds the Christian life. Same thing is, you don't need to listen to rules made by men, but that doesn't mean we need to throw off all authority in the Christian life and all teaching. There are good and godly authorities appointed under Christ that we should listen to, and scripture even calls us to obey such authorities. We need to listen to godly authority in Christ. But how do we distinguish between godly authority, which we should be listening to, and rules made by men? We don't need our salvation umpired by someone else's supposed knowledge, but that doesn't mean we don't need to listen to and respect Christ-appointed authority. But how do we do this? How do we distinguish these? And that's where Paul is going to bring us at the beginning of verse 19. He describes these teachers as teaching these novel, these spiritual-sounding doctrines, but were nonetheless man-made rules in religion. They were making themselves feel better in their supposed wisdom. They were puffed up, but puffed up without reason because of their fleshly mind. Their mind was in the earth. We'll talk about that later in another passage. But in verse 19, he contrasts their attitude with the cracked attitude. They were going on about their own self-made religion instead of holding fast to the head. They were puffed up with visions. They pursued asceticism. They wanted to worship angels. They had this. They had that. They had the other thing. They were so wise. But they had let go of the head. Paul is saying, these teachings are flowing from people and not flowing from Christ. They revel in their visions, but their teachings fail to make much of Christ. These teachings don't find their root in Christ as revealed in the Word of Christ. Any good and godly teacher will be there in the Word of Christ saying, here's what the Word of God teaches, here's what the Word of God teaches. These people were running off of their own knowledge, their own revelation of God, their own ability to know God's will. These teachings didn't find their root in Christ as revealed in the Word of Christ, the Scriptures. Their root is in mere men who want to make much of themselves. And so that's the massive difference between a godly, Christ-appointed authority, like an elder or husband, and someone who is merely trying to arbitrate your salvation with his superior knowledge. The godly authority will take massive pains to state exactly what Scripture states. Sometimes they might make a small error, but they're going to go to pains to say, this is what Scripture says, this is what Scripture says. And they're only going to bind your conscience to those things that Scripture clearly binds your conscience to. Look, here in the New Testament it says, get rid of all sexual immorality. They're going to do that, and they might even back off every once in a while, because they don't want to go past what Scripture says. That's what a godly authority will look like. They'll be hesitant. At the right time, they will stand up in command and say, no, thus saith the Lord. And then they'll pull out the Scripture and say, thus saith the Lord. But they'll be hesitant, because they don't want to go one step past what Scripture says. Well, the puffed up teacher will fail to take you back to scripture. Or perhaps he'll take you back to scripture, but significantly misinterpret scripture in a way that obscures Christ. He won't be making much of Christ. He'll be making much of his own wisdom. His teaching won't be rooted in Christ. It'll be rooted in himself somehow. The godly teacher will always be quick and willing to show you how this practice is taught by Christ, and why this practice helps you to represent Christ well. He'll be making much of Christ. It won't be his wisdom that's teaching. Christ's wisdom, and say, this is wisdom from Christ, and here's how we see it in the Word of Christ, for you, today. The puffed-up teacher will be all about his own wisdom, saying, no, I've got this better idea. Mind-referenced in Scripture, hair-bone twisted, make it not. about Christ. And so we could put another question here that we could apply to all areas of life. And that question is, is this rooted in Christ or something else? So we said there's root and fruit. So is this helping me pursue Christ was the first one. And is this rooted in Christ? or is it rooted in something else? That's Paul's message here. There were teachers disqualifying those who didn't listen to their exalted wisdom. But Paul wants them to see that these teachers were making much of themselves and not holding fast to Christ. Their teaching was rooted in men, not in Christ. Paul wants them and us to follow godly authorities, but not mere rules made by men. So when someone tells you something, think carefully about whether they're rooting that in Christ. Are they taking me to Scripture? And when they take me to Scripture, can I look at that and say, oh yeah, that is what Christ is saying. That's what Christ is calling me to. That's not something they're making up. That's something that's clearly in the Word of God. How is this flowing from Christ, through Scripture, to us? Was that rooted in Christ, or was that something some wise guy made up to bind you? And so we can come to a second kid's question. We'll see if it's on there. That is on the board. So the second kid's question, what is Paul's second helpful question? And it's, is this teaching coming from Jesus? So first, is this helping me love Jesus? Second, is this teaching coming from Jesus? Those things we should be pursuing should satisfy both of those things. We should be pursuing things that the Word of God calls us to, that Christ is calling us to, because we love the Scripture. We want to bind ourselves to the Scripture. We want to bind ourselves in obedience to Christ. And they should be things that are helping us love Jesus more, not distracting us into this rule or this freedom or this thing or that thing, but helping us pursue Christ. They should be coming from Christ and leading to Christ. So what's Paul's second helping question? Is this teaching coming from Christ? So then we'll continue on to our third point. Instead, hold on to the head. Hold on to Christ, the head of the body. Hold on to Christ, the head of the body. And so as Paul finishes verse 19, he talks about what it looks like to hold fast to Christ. So he says that they're not holding fast to the head. Then he says, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God. Paul says, holding fast to the head will be like a body. That's one of Paul's favorite images for the people of God is the body. And he says, holding fast to Christ is like a body that's holding fast to its head. Doesn't want to let its head go. Our bodies, fortunately, don't drop our heads off very often. While it's attached to the head, the whole body is going to work well. It's going to be held together by its joints and ligaments, and therefore it's going to grow in good and healthy ways. But a body disconnected from its head generally fails to grow. We can probably all agree on that. A body disconnected from its head generally fails to grow. A body disconnected from its head dies. That's not good. If you're not holding fast to the head, you're dead. You're not going the right way. And so Paul finishes this paragraph by bringing us back to the importance of why we're asking these questions. Why do I need to take these questions and really think over them carefully? We need to make sure that our lives are being lived according to Christ because Christ is our head. And without our head, we die. If you don't have the desire to pursue these things, to find these things out, then you're liable to let go of your head, your body will go somewhere else, and it will die. But also this short statement of theology helps us identify whether things are really rooted in Christ and bearing fruit in Christ. Because if they are, then the things in this verse are going to be evident. And so Paul's going to give us three things that those who are living according to Christ, their lives will be marked by three things. So when our lives are according to Christ, what things will be evident? I see at least three things here. First, things according to Christ will cause you to grasp on to Christ more. Things according to Christ will cause you to grasp on to Christ more. And so Paul starts out by saying that we are holding fast to the head. We need to start there. This is perhaps the most important statement of this paragraph. Those things that are according to Christ will cause you to grasp on to Christ more. It's a continual cycle. Knowing Christ will cause you to live your life according to Christ. living your life according to Christ, will call you to know Christ more, to desire Christ more, to be more satisfied in Christ. And as you're more satisfied in Christ, you're going to keep living your life more according to Christ. And as you live your life more according to Christ, you're going to find yourself more satisfied, more desiring Christ. And it's this continual cycle. And the cycle makes perfect sense, because both sides are all about Christ, and Christ is everything. Paul is going to get to, in Colossians, in a few verses, he's going to say, but Christ is all in all. Christ is everything. So, your lives should be rooted in Christ, and as your lives are rooted in Christ, it makes your desires, your passions be about Christ, which will bring your lives more in line with Christ, which will bring your passions more in line with Christ. You'll desire to Christ, you'll grasp on. And this word in verse 19 literally means, to seize. It's often used to taking hold of someone to throw them in prison. They came and seized him and threw him in prison. Or sometimes it's used to seize someone and put them to death. And so the point is that it's an active, it's an emphatic verb. It's not a... We'll hold on a little bit. It's a, we are going to grab on. We're going to hold you and not let go. And so it's an emphatic, an active verb. We should be seizing Christ. Our lives lived in light of Christ should lead us to grasping ever more tightly to Christ, desiring to know him, to be in communion with him, to know his will, to live out his commandments. If the things in your life aren't helping you to grasp on to Christ more, then clearly they're not according to Christ. The things that are according to Christ will lead you to grasp on to Christ more. Be pursuing things that call you to grasp on to Christ more and more each day. Those are the things that pursue. Pursue things that help you love and desire Christ. So that's the first thing. Things according to Christ will cause you to grasp on to Christ more. Second, things according to Christ will call you to intensifying fellowship in a local church. Things according to Christ will call you to intensifying fellowship in a local church. So that's where Paul steps next. If we are to be holding fast to the head, then our action should be together as a united body. We will be a whole body, a body that is knit together through its joints and ligaments. So if we're holding fast to the head, then from the head, the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments. We'll talk about that last phrase in a second, but that's the second thing. The phrase knit together has actually already been used once in Colossians 2. If you remember back a couple of weeks, it was used back in verse 2. Paul had said that his desire specifically for the Colossian church was that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love. to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. Paul wanted their hearts to be knit together in love. They were to be pursuing each other in love, coming together as the body of Christ. And if we're holding fast to the head, then we will be an ever-intensifying fellowship with the body of Christ. Our love will grow for each other and our pursuit and guard for each other will deepen. So the things in your life that are according to Christ will be calling you to pursue fellowship with other believers in a local church. And I think Paul is talking specifically about a local church. Not general on more of his fellowship with believers, but specifically fellowship in a local church because he uses the phrase joints and ligaments. From whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God. This is very parallel to Ephesians 4 where Paul is also talking about the growth of the church in Christ. We read that earlier, Ephesians 4, I'll read 11 through 16. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be, I'm sorry, apostles, prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers in order to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attending to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. skipping over a few verses, he says, from him, this actually sounds a lot like Colossians, from him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. And so when Paul talks about joints, and ligaments. In Ephesians he says he's held together by every supporting ligament. And he's talking about those words. He's talking about the organization of the local church. He's talking about its leaders and how a local church grows together in Christ. The pastors and teachers and evangelists who are drawing on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets are organizing local churches. And those local churches are held together by those joints and ligaments, that well-ordered church. And Paul's saying, when we're holding fast to the head, we're going to be pursuing that local church. It's when the body is well-ordered, as Paul described the church in Colossae earlier in chapter 2, with godly leaders preparing all of God's people to serve Christ, that growth in Christ is truly going to happen. And so the things in your life that are according to Christ will call you to deepening fellowship and love for and submission to a local church. If the things in your life aren't helping you pursue deep, meaningful relationships in the organized body of Christ... Some people talk poorly about organized body of Christ, but Paul would say, no, just a second, we need it organized with its joints and ligaments put together right. helping you pursue deep, meaningful relationships in the organized body of Christ, then these things are clearly not according to Christ. The things that are according to Christ will drive you into a local church, make you desire to be in a local church. Be pursuing things that call you to Christ-honoring fellowship in a local church. So they'll help us hold fast to Christ. They'll help us cause us to grasp onto Christ more. They'll cause us to intensifying fellowship, call us to intensifying fellowship in a local church. And then third, things according to Christ will produce ever increasing Christ-likeness in you. things according to Christ will produce ever-increasing Christ-likeness in you. And this is where Paul is going to go to in chapter 3. We're going to get a lot of time to think over this truth. And so I'm going to make this brief this morning. If we're really pursuing Christ, then what we need to see is an ever-increasing Christ-likeness. If we're pursuing other things, that's not going to necessarily be true. But if we're pursuing Christ, we'll see an ever-increasing Christ-likeness. And so it gives us a preview of that here in chapter 2 at the end of verse 19. If we're connected to the head, then we will grow with a growth that is from God. We'll grow with growth that comes from God. We will grow in godliness. We'll grow in the likeness of His Son. If our lives are being lived according to Christ, then they'll be filled with an ever-increasing desire for Christ, leading to an ever-increasing reflection of Christ. We won't be puffed up with ourselves in pursuing emptiness. We'll be enthralled with Christ in pursuing His image. Our lives will be increasingly marked by the fruits of the Spirit, and increasingly devoid of those things that are in opposition to Christ. And Paul's going to call us to some clear rules. We don't want to throw off all rules, and Colossians 3 is going to give some clear rules. These are the things you need to get rid of. Put these things to death. These are the things you need to put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Because these things are the fruit of the Spirit, and these things are the things that are clearly opposed to Christ. And if the things in our life are according to Christ, they'll help us grow in those things. So if the things in your life aren't helping you grow in Christ, if they aren't helping you express in your attitudes and actions that Christ is in you, that the hope of glory is residing in you, then these things are clearly not according to Christ. Be pursuing things that help you grow in holiness. Be pursuing things that help you reflect Christ. And it's these things that mark the life of the one that's living according to Christ. Living according to Christ will be marked by an ever-increasing desire for Christ, an ever-deepening fellowship in a local church, and an ever-increasing reflection of Christ. And so pursue these things. Pursue those things and your life will naturally be being lived according to Christ. And then be asking, what is the root of this thing? Is it coming from Christ or is it coming from somewhere else? And what is the fruit of this thing? Is it leading me to Christ or is it leading me somewhere else? Let's pray together. Father, these things are important because Christ is all-important. We want to acknowledge that before you this morning. Christ is everything. He is everything in this universe. It is by His Word that the universe was created. It was for His glory that the universe was created. He is the One who upholds it by the Word of His power. Christ is also everything for us. Apart from Christ, we are dead in sins. We have no hope. We have nothing. But you have given us everything that we could ever need, desire, or want in Christ. And so Father, our prayer is that you would exalt Christ this morning in our midst. Give us that desire that we've talked about this morning. Give us a desire for Christ that outshines all the things of this world, that makes the arguments of this world seem pitiful and not worthy of following after. Father, give us a passion for pursuing those things. Help us to understand how to pursue those things well, what things in our life are helping us to pursue Christ, and what things in our life or being the stumbling blocks, being hindrances to us pursuing Christ. Father, we need your Spirit, not only to be here this morning, but to indwell us to go with us this week to make that happen. And Father, we plead for you to cause that to happen, to send your Spirit with us. Father, we pray that for our good. Apart from Your Spirit, we will be nothing good. And we pray that for Christ's glory, that as we go out into this world bearing Christ's name, that He would be honored and glorified as Your Spirit convicts us and changes us and works in us to make Christ so glorious. So it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen. So I'll open it up if any of the men have any questions or comments or any other things that they brought this morning. And I would say that's great, although I would also say that everything that is seeking after God is always gonna be in Christ. And that's what the New Testament always holds up for us, is that everything is in Christ. He's gonna bring that out in Colossians, that Christ is all in all, that he has been exalted to fill everything in the whole earth. So we ought to be able to know and to say. Not only is this helping me pursue God, but is it helping me pursue Christ? The things that are helping you pursue God are going to be in Christ, pursuing Christ, helping you know and grasp onto Christ more. And if they're not, they may just be a lack of knowledge. There's probably some things there that are good to pursue that you're not sure how they have to do with Christ yet. But there's always a danger that we're going to start pursuing God on our own. That we're going to disroot ourselves from Christ. and start pursuing God in other ways and things that aren't about Christ, which is where sometimes we can come to the Old Testament and make mistakes because everything in the Old Testament should be bringing us to Christ and then being applied to our lives because Paul says, we need to be holding fast to the head. Only as we're holding fast to the head, we'll be growing with the growth that is from God. If we disconnect from Christ who is the head, then we have some danger. So yes, be growing in God. That is excellent and a good way to think through things as long as we're doing it in light of Christ. Right, and so the question is, and I think that comes back to what we're talking about here. Are they rooted in Christ? There may be some argument there just like the Sabbath. Me and Derek have differences and we can accept those differences because I am convinced that Derek is seeing those things in Scripture as pertaining to Christ and is living them out because he sees them in Scripture as pertaining to Christ and is trying to live them out in Christ in pursuit of Christ and coming from Christ. I hope Derek can accept me because he sees that the way I'm doing it is flowing from Scripture. My best interpretation in Scripture of how these things pertain to Christ and are leading me to Now, if you're saying we need to follow these things because they're rules and they have to do with God but have nothing to do with Christ, I think that actually becomes a large danger and the sort of danger that Paul would be talking to the Galatians about just a second. These things aren't the end. They're means to an end. You need to find the end in Christ. Find how these things are pointing to Christ and then figure out where you are on those things once you've figured out how these things pertain to Christ. Absolutely. That's, yeah. Right. I'm going to give you a little bit of a taste of that. that I thought I was right and somebody else was wrong, how do we argue and remain in humility if we're seeking after Christ? Right, and I should say those things mean back to you. Perhaps I have misread and I haven't understood fully, but I'm trying to and I'm trying to pursue Christ. And as we say that to each other, we can shake hands in Christ and say, yeah, let's pursue Christ together. We'll figure this out as we go along. Yeah, it's probably true. That's why I didn't put Christ above either of us in that little diagram. Absolutely Yeah, and that's something we probably can't stress too much. When I say according to Christ, I mean Christ is revealed in scripture. And Paul's gonna bring that up too. He's not gonna talk about scripture in Colossians. He's gonna talk about the word of Christ. That the scriptures that we have are the word testifying to Christ. And so where we need to know Christ is in the word of Christ. Anything that we know of Christ has to come from the word of Christ. Only once we know Christ as revealed in his word can we say anything is according to Christ or not according to Christ. You're right. All sorts of people can say, well this is according to Christ and this is according to Christ and really have no attachment to Christ because they've unmoored themselves from the Word of God. And that is absolutely 100% correct. That shouldn't change our attitude much because we still need to love them. That's true. But we don't necessarily need to listen to their arguments. Yeah. And actually, you can listen to them. You can look at the scripture and say, no, God is not revealing that to me in scripture. That's true. And hold to what Christ has given us and still love them. Right. Yeah. OK. With that, we'll turn to communion.