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Remember Who(se) You Are (Part Nine) Keep “The Main Thing,” the Main Thing Colossians 2:16-23 |
March 12, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
One of the more memorable experiences of my sophomore year in high school occurred when, on a lark, I decided to try out for the tennis team in spite of the fact that I had never before even picked up a tennis racket. Since tennis was a very big deal in Southern California I was not at all surprised when a huge number of kids turned out to compete for the 8 slots available on the JV team.
The tryouts were conducted over the course of a week and they began with a lecture from the tennis coach. As all of us “hopefuls” sat on the tennis court the coach said, “Some of you have been playing tennis your whole life. Some of you are convinced that you’re already good players. But I don’t care because I’m not looking for good tennis players. I’m looking for players who will play this game the way that I teach you to play this game. So, if you want to make this team the first thing you need to do is forget everything you think you know about playing tennis. I’m going to teach you how to play tennis my way. And the 8 people that make this team will be the 8 players who are best at doing exactly what I tell them to do.”
And I remember breaking out into a big smile and thinking, “I just made this team. I am going to be the most teachable student this coach has ever had.”
And with that, the teaching began. He told us how he wanted us to grip the racket to hit a forehand, a backhand, an overhead and a serve. And then, we started to practice. And once again the coach said, “I’m not interested in the accuracy of your shots. The only thing I want to see is whether or not you are gripping the racket the way I told you to grip the racket.”
And so I did. I sent tennis balls all over creation. I had absolutely no idea where the ball was going to go when I hit it, but my grip was perfect.
And on it went through the second day and the third day. Each day the coach gave us new instructions. And each day I followed those instructions as perfectly as I could.
The fourth and fifth days we began playing actual matches against one another. And, once again, the coach said, “Remember, this is not about winning. The only thing that matters is playing the way I’ve taught you to play.”
And so the competition began. Not only did I not win a single match, I didn’t even win a single game. But even as my fellow competitors celebrated their victories, I was smiling with confidence. Because I knew that I was concentrating on doing everything the coach had taught us to do while all my competitors seemed to care about was winning.
And when the list of players who had made the team was finally posted, my name was right in the middle of that list. The vast majority of the kids who didn’t make the team were better players than me, but they still got cut because they didn’t follow the coach’s instructions. They lost sight of what mattered most. They got side-tracked by their egos and their competitive spirits and started focusing on winning rather than simply playing the way the coach had taught us to play which was the main thing that we were supposed to be doing.
And this temptation to get side-tracked and lose sight of the main thing is something that we all face in virtually every meaningful aspect of our lives.
--We can get side-tracked as parents. Bombarded with constant messages about consumerism and success we can easily end up giving our kids everything in the world except the main thing they need from us…our time.
--We can get side-tracked in our marriages. Bombarded with constant messages about “my needs, my wants and my happiness” we can easily get so focused on ourselves that we forget that the main thing in a marriage is a mutual commitment to the health of the relationship.
--And we can also get side-tracked in our relationships with Jesus. And that’s the focus of the text that we’re going to examine this morning.
For the past 9 weeks we have been making our way through the book of Colossians, Paul’s letter of encouragement and instruction to the young church in Colosse. And as we come, now, to the end of chapter 2, we’re going to meet a couple of seductive influences that threatened to throw them off-track spiritually and can still throw us off-track spiritually if we don’t protect ourselves against them. And when it comes to something as important as our relationships with Jesus we simply cannot afford to get side-tracked. We need to keep “The Main Thing,” the main thing.
Colossians 2:16-17 says,
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
While some of the specifics about which Paul is writing here may sound foreign to our modern ears, the underlying warning that he’s issuing is completely contemporary. Paul is warning us, here, about the dangers of legalism. And legalism, in its essence, is the belief that the key to getting right with God is strict adherence to a prescribed set of religious rules and regulations. So, the legalist says, “Here is a list of things that you’re supposed to do and here is a list of things that you’re not supposed to do. Do these and don’t do these and you will be right with God.”
So Paul is warning us, here, not to get spiritually sidetracked by shifting our focus off of Christ and onto a list of religious “do’s” and “don’ts.” And it’s an important warning for us to hear because the temptation toward a legalistic approach to God has always been with us. In the case of the Colossian church their legalistic tendencies were tied to their Jewish heritage, which included:
…a vast array of regulations about which kinds of foods you could eat and which kinds you couldn’t eat and;
…another vast array of regulations about what you could and couldn’t do on certain days of the year.
Now, while the legalistic challenges facing the Colossian church have, for the most part, fallen off the modern radar screen, legalistic challenges of other sorts surface in the church, from time to time, even today. If you look hard enough, you can find individual Christians and entire churches who will question the purity, even the legitimacy of your Christian faith if you participate in certain practices that they prohibit, for instance—if you dance, go to the movies, smoke, drink alcohol, wear make up, get a tattoo, participate in Halloween, gamble, use guitars and drums in church or read any version of the Bible other than the King James.
And on and on it goes. Some sincere, devout, Bible-believing Christians believe that “good Christians” don’t do these things and other Christians who are equally sincere, devout and Bible-believing practice these things freely. So the question is, What should we do when we discover that our view of a particular practice…a practice that is not explicitly prohibited in the scriptures…is different from that of one of our fellow brothers or sisters in Christ?
Well, the legalist would say, “You fight it out. If you find someone who doesn’t agree with you first, you point out the error of their ways and if they don’t change their behavior you run them out of the church.” But, folks, that is not what the scripture says. Let’s look again at our text.
Verse 16 says, “…do not let anyone judge you by…” these kinds of things. It’s a rather awkwardly worded verse because, obviously, you can’t stop someone from judging you. Judgmental people are just that, judgmental. You can, however, control the way you respond to the judgments of others and that’s the real point here. If you are walking closely with the Lord and your conscience is clear in the matter, don’t buy into anyone’s attempt to make you feel guilty.
Instead, remember, as Paul writes in verse 17, that religious rules and regulations of this sort are mere shadows that point to a reality but they’re not the reality itself. Reality is only found in Christ. Following rules and regulations for the sake of being religious does not earn you any points with God, whatsoever. What matters is your relationship with Jesus. That’s the main thing.
--If doing this particular thing brings you closer to Christ, then by all means do it, and don’t worry about what any one else thinks about it.
--And if not doing this particular thing brings you closer to Christ, then by all means don’t do it, and don’t worry about what any one else thinks about it.
The point is this—don’t get preoccupied with shadows. Keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is your relationship with Jesus.
So, one of the things that can sidetrack us spiritually is shifting our focus off of Jesus and onto a bunch of religious rules and regulations. Another thing that can sidetrack us spiritually is shifting our focus off of Christ and onto the quest for new and deeper spiritual experiences. And that’s the point that Paul is speaking to in verses 18-19 where he says,
“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.”
Paul is describing, here, another threat that this young church was facing because of some false teachers in the church. And Paul gives us 4 insights into their teaching and practice.
--First, in this case, their false teaching had to do with the “worship of angels.”
--Second, they were going into “great detail” about the deeper spiritual experiences that they were having through the “worship of angels.”
--Third, they were convinced that these “spiritual highs” that they were having proved that they were full of the Holy Spirit but Paul says that, in fact, they had “unspiritual minds” and the only thing that they were full of was themselves. They were “puffed up” with pride. In fact, they were so full of themselves that they “lost” their “connection with the Head,” that is, Christ. Consequently, this experience they thought was so spiritually satisfying would only last for a moment because, in fact, it was nothing more than an “idle notion” and once the high wore off they’d be off trying to recreate it all over again.
--And, fourth, full of false spiritual pride they were looking down their noses attempting to “disqualify”—the word means, “judge”—as second class all of those believers who didn’t share their experiences.
And Paul’s word to us is—don’t let them judge you. Don’t buy into the spiritual condescension of those who claim to be “Super Saints” because when they worship they move freely from one ecstatic experience to another.
Spiritual highs don’t earn you any points with God, whatsoever. What matters is your relationship with Jesus. That’s the main thing. Don’t get sidetracked by chasing after spiritual experiences. Keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is your relationship with Jesus.
And that brings us to the end of chapter 2 and this closing word from Paul. In VERSES 20-23 he writes:
“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
In his wonderful paraphrase called “The Message,” Eugene Petersen beautifully expresses the heart of these verses like this, “So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? ‘Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!’ Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.”
Folks, there are so many things that can get you spiritually sidetracked. But the good news is that you can protect yourself against all such distractions if you will simply remember to keep “the main thing,” the main thing and “the main thing” is your relationship with Jesus.
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum