Living "Christ Alone"

This was the message today at FBC Sunnyside, WA.

Living “Christ Alone” (Colossians 3:1-17)

Two weeks ago I shared a message I called “Christ Alone” drawn from Colossians 1:13-23.  The simple point I was making is this: the apostle Paul sees the Colossians being swayed away from the simplicity of Christ.  He hammers away at this: it’s not Christ plus law, or Christ plus ritual, or Christ plus secret knowledge, or Christ plus rules and regulations.  It’s just Christ.  He’s enough.  He’s enough for two reasons: because of who He is (fully God, and with full authority over all things) and what He’s done (gone to the cross and burst the bonds of death by His resurrection).  He’s brought us over from the realm of darkness to the realm of light. 

Last week, we looked at Colossians 1:24-2:23, where we saw the amazing truth of Christ living in us, while we fight off the persistent blasphemy of religion—the blasphemy that you need more than Jesus to know God.

Religion is all that junk that gets in the way between us and the simplicity of the good news of Jesus.  Paul calls us to change the way we think and the way we live.  First, think this way: Jesus is enough.  I don’t need to add anything to Jesus to know God, to be forgiven, to be happy and fulfilled.  He’s enough.

Do you know how our faith, the Christ-centered faith, is different from every other faith on earth?  The theme of every other faith—all those religions—is this DO: do good works, do the ritual, do the requirements, and then, maybe, God will hear you and bless you.  That’s do, and that’s religion.

The theme of the gospel is this: not DO, but DONE.  Jesus paid it all.  He went to the cross.  He did the good work we could not do, and it’s DONE now.  That’s why Paul could speak of all the things that he does with such absolute certainty.  And that’s what was behind what Jesus said just before He died there: “It is finished” (John 19:30). 

Colossians 1-2 is all about Paul reminding believers that because of Christ’s total triumph on the cross and by resurrection, He is all we need.  Don’t turn back, says Paul—don’t turn back either to Jewish law or to pagan practices.

Now, the second half of the book, chapters 3-4, paints for us just what Christ-centered living looks like.  In chapter 3:1-17, he gives general principles which he then gives some specific applications about in 3:18-4:6 to believing households and to prayer.

It’s a big chunk, but today let’s look at 3:1-17.  It’s the heart of Paul’s teaching on—what does it mean to live a Christ centered life?  What does living “Christ alone” look like?

The basic truth: look to Christ, the Center (3:1-4)

¹ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Twice Paul says “set”: set your hearts on things above and then set your minds on things about.  These are simple commands with profound meanings.  If Christ is Lord, if eternity is real, then live it in terms of your priorities, affections and interests.  We are wrapped up in Him; we have been raised with Him; we even died with Him; He is our life, and when He appears in His glory, we will also appear with His glory.

We are “Christ people”—that’s what “Christian” means.  All the wonderful things He’s done for us—what does He want in return?  Gold?  Animal sacrifices?  Rituals?  All that “religious” stuff?  Nope.

So what does He want?

In a word: He wants adoration.  A heart set on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  A mind set on things above, not on earthly things.

That doesn’t mean we can’t be interested in the San Diego Chargers or in home decorating or in getting a job promotion.  It just means that all these things take a far back seat to this: loving God: loving the Jesus who died for us; loving Him for His own sake. 

It means that every believer will see everything in the light of and against the background of eternity. He will no longer live as if this world was all that mattered; he will see this world against the background of the larger world of eternity.

Every believer will set giving above getting, serving above ruling, forgiving above avenging. The believer will see things, not as they appear to men, but as they appear to God.

In some ways, it’s as simple as Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” 

Now, why does God want us to live this way?  Is there any sense that He wants this in order to restrict or to frustrate or to limit us by these directions?  No, not at all; this is how we come to maximum joy in life.  Sin is a prison, not an amusement park.  Whether it’s the sin of a life without God, or the sin of misplaced religion, it’s all a prison.  Here’s how we get free, and Paul gives us specific directions in the following verses.  

We’ve all heard, “Out with the bad air, in with the good”, right?  Well, v. 5-11 is bad air and v. 12-17 is good air.

So, get rid of… (3:5-11)

 ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Get rid of these things: Paul expresses that in two ways in this passage: “Put to death” (v. 5), “You must rid yourselves of all such things” (v. 9) based on the fact that “You have taken off your old self” (v. 9). 

There are certain things that just aren’t compatible with the Christ-centered life.  That’s our motive: they just get in the way of a life centered on Him.

Ever have some kid you because you don’t drink alcohol, or don’t use swear words, or are embarrassed by a dirty joke?  They know that you’re a Christian, so they say, “So what?  You think you’ll go to hell if you have a Budweiser?”  That’s not the issue for believers—the issue is—what’s compatible with the Christ-centered life, and what’s not? 

There are two “vice lists” in this passage.  Vs. 5 says:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

“Put to death”: that’s kind of violent!  Paul’s urging us to take no prisoners here.  This vice list is about sexual purity, and I think it’s so interesting that Paul follows this upstream.  That is, he works from the outcome back to source.  Behind sexual immorality are sexually impure ways of thinking (impurity, list, evil desires and greed), but Paul doesn’t stop there.  He goes all the way back to the headwaters:  “evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”

Follow the stream up to the source far enough, you’ll find idolatry: putting the god of sexual pleasure ahead of the God who gives all pleasures, including sexual pleasure in marriage.  It’s sexual pleasure running a life, and Paul says, “Get out a axe, and put immorality to death.”  This isn’t “let go and let God”: this is war. 

This was so counter-cultural for the people of Colossae.  All kinds of sexual behavior were tolerated in their culture (like it is today).  Paul’s concern was that lifestyle would suck them back into pagan living.

The other vice list has to do with the way we talk:

⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Unlike the first list, here Paul starts upstream and works his way down: from anger on one end (an attitude) to filthy language (an action) on the other.  Get rid of it, he says.  This is the bad air.  This is the junk that just has to go—to make room for good things.  The reason is the change of clothes we’ve made—that’s the analogy in v. 9-10: when you came to Jesus, the old self when off and you put on the new self—a new self that bit by bit is being renewed in the image of its Creator.  Before he moves on, he makes one more point: it doesn’t matter who you are or what your ethnic background is, or what your status in life is, this is what God is doing in our lives, and this is the call God’s made on our lives (v. 11):

Here [in the realm of the new self] there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.       

Now it’s time to look at the “good air”, the things to add to our lives:     

And add this to your life (3:12-17)

Christ-like love (v. 12-14)

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Love is the idea that holds these verses together.  Love produces the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Love moves me to forgive in imitation of the way I’ve been forgiven.  Love is what unites all these things.  Love is the new set of clothes that came with the life in Christ.  Love makes a new person.  And love “binds them [these virtues] together in perfect unity.”

It’s Christ-like love. Over and over again, in Colossians and elsewhere in his letters, Paul tells us that while love is something we strive for, it’s also something that’s been placed in our hearts—supernaturally placed by the Holy Spirit when we put our faith in Jesus.  What the Holy Spirit does is to set about reproducing the character of Jesus in our lives.  That’s part of what v. 3 means: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  This is the new person God made us to be, and yes we strive to make it so, but we’re not striving on our own.  The Spirit is striving in us to bring forth the life and character of Jesus in us.  Now we can resist the Spirit, we can grieve the Spirit and we can quench the Spirit, but He desires to make us like Jesus. 

So, the Christ-centered life adds His love; it also adds His peace.  Look at v. 15-17.

Christ-made peace (vs. 15-17)

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The final part we look at today says—let the peace, won by Jesus on the cross, rule both in our hearts and in our fellowship together. 

Do you see how Paul unites together these four ideas?  Peace, thankfulness, the word of Christ and doing all in the name of Jesus—all four.  All four are set up as commands: “Let the peace…be thankful…let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  It’s not a set of disconnected commands: it’s all of one piece.

It’s one piece with two sides: it’s peace within and peace between—peace within your life and peace between followers of Jesus (“as members of one body you were called to peace”). 

It may be two-sided in its effect, but it’s all one in terms of its origin: it’s the peace of Christ.  Jesus spoke of this in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” 

That peace is expressed in thankfulness, in devotion to the word of Christ, and in doing all in His name.  If I have His peace, then I am thankful.  If I have His peace, then I seek out His word to dwell in me; if I have His peace, then I invite Him into every aspect of my life, doing all—word or deed—in the name of Jesus.

Don’t you find how it is that you let the word of Christ dwell in us interesting?  It’s “as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”  Worship and singing especially has a powerful role in making the word “dwell” in us. 

Living Christ Alone

So now, what do we do?  Well, the real bottom line of living “Christ alone” is set up for us by Paul in 3:1:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

This is not some weird, monastic, other-worldly, kind of thing we’re called to.  We are called to be people whose feet are firmly planted on earth, with all its needs and problems and yes, all its possibilities, but to do so not only with eternity in mind, but with a sense that God has called me, and you, to be conduits bringing a little of heaven to earth, right here and right now. 

Remember that Paul wrote to people who were a lot like us: people who worked hard all day, who were raising families and trying to make the money stretch, and who fell asleep exhausted each night.  And he said to them, set your heart on things above.

Living “Christ alone” means that you believe and act on the reality that worship isn’t just something you do for an hour or two a week: you’re engaged in worship all the time—or at least that’s the idea. 

Imagine someone saying, I love my wife.  Come rain or shine, I make sure I pay attention to her for a whole hour each week. 

That’s not only not love; it sounds an awful lot like--religion. 

But the way we have for us here is different.  It moves from the heart on things above in v. 1 to the hands engaged in worshipful deeds in vs. 17:

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all 

in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

It starts with a heart and a mind captured by the greatness of Jesus; it finishes with that great Jesus working and doing and loving through you.  This is Christ-centered living.

So where are you?  Is He at the center of your life, or at the edge?  Do you invite Him into your life daily, or just from time to time?  Is He working in your life to move you closer to the center—are you allowing Him to do that?

I want to pray now for all of us, that we would turn our hearts toward Him, and ask the Spirit of God to do some spiritual surgery on us.  Maybe you’ve gotten caught up in sexual sin.  Or maybe in angry language.  Maybe we’re being impatient with people, or we’re harboring unforgiveness.  Maybe we’re just not letting the word of Christ dwell within us.  Come back to Him today.  Set your hearts on things above.  Let’s live the Christ-centered life.

Let Nothing Come Between You and Jesus

A little (?) late this week, here's last week's message from FBC Sunnyside, WA:

Let Nothing Get between You and Jesus

Colossians 1:24-2:23

We’re now at the mid-way point in this series on Colossians, and I want to take a moment to recap what we’ve discovered thus far.

The church at Colossae was not one that Paul had ever visited.  The church, situated in the Roman province of Asia, was founded most likely by a man named Epaphras.  The church was a good, healthy church, but Paul was concerned for the church there because he’d heard reports that they were being influenced by a weird combination of ideas, ideas that took the law from Judaism, and took special mystical knowledge from paganism to try to add on to the faith of the gospel of Jesus. 

In other words, people were trying to turn the faith of Jesus into a religion.

Now religion—nearly any kind of religion—can have a positive effect on behavior.  Devout Buddhists are often very nice people.  Devout Hindus—as vegetarians—are often healthy people.  It’s unlikely that a drunken Mormon will ever run you off the road.  Two of the people I enjoy when it comes to public ethics (Michael Medved and Dennis Prager) are observant Jews, and I have a deep respect for Jewish wisdom.

But the gospel of Jesus drives deeper than our behavior or morality or ethics.  It’s really not about us at all.

The essence of every religion is (to quote Led Zeppelin) “buying a stairway to heaven.”  So you cease craving (as Buddha said) or do mitzvah (Judaism) or follow the Temple ceremony (LDS church) or take the Haj to Mecca or whatever and God signs off on your efforts and you’re in.

Nothing could be further from the faith of Jesus than all these.  The faith of Jesus is not DO, the faith of Jesus is DONE.  In John 3:17, the word says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  Jesus was on a rescue mission.  Jesus did not come into the world to update the Law of Moses.  Jesus did not come into the world to start a new religion.  He did not come into the world to tell us what we need to do to get right with God.  He did what was needed to be done to get us right with God, and He did it on the cross.  It’s DONE, a done deal on the cross.  We just embrace that done deal by faith, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are transformed by what Christ has already done.

We need to have that fresh in our minds when we look at today’s rather lengthy passage—Colossians 1:24-2:23.  Although it’s 27 verses long, it centers on two simple ideas.

The first is this: the amazing truth is that Christ has come to live in you.  That’s a concept that not even the prophets of the Old Testament understood—a “mystery” now revealed.  That’s Colossians 1:24-2:5.

The second is this: there is a persistent barrier or enemy that will try to keep you away from Jesus way, and it’s called religion.  The Jesus way isn’t a religion, and as a matter of fact, the Jesus way is the anti-religion.  That’s Colossians 2:6-23.

So let’s look at these.

The first: the amazing truth is that Christ has come to live in you.  The way Paul describes this is to call it a “mystery” in Colossians 1:26, 27 and 2:3.       

Let’s read Colossians 1:24-2:5:

²⁴ Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 ²⁸ We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

 ¹ I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. ² My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. ⁵ For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Now this is a complex passage, but let me hit the two ideas that make the rest clear.  First, Paul says that the mystery of Christ is so precious and so powerful that Paul puts his life and well-being on the line for it willingly, even joyfully.  He sees himself as a servant who’s been commissioned “to present to you the word of God in its fullness.”  He says that he’s struggling for the Colossians and the believers at Laodicea for the same purpose.  How was he struggling?  In prayer, in his witness and even in writing, as he’s writing this letter, and his other letters. 

Now, I’ve called what Paul is struggling for an “amazing truth.”  What he calls it is a “mystery.” 

“Mystery” is a word that can throw you.  What Paul means by “mystery” is an amazing truth that was long misunderstood or, in the wisdom of God, was not yet revealed.  Now, the “mystery” is fully revealed—it’s not a mystery anymore.  And the mystery—the “amazing truth” is this: when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, He Himself comes to truly live within us.  To be specific and theologically accurate, His presence is mediated into us by the Holy Spirit.

That’s how Paul defines the mystery in 1:27:

“…this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Then in 2:2-3 he writes,

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”   

Here’s the amazing truth: all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ, and this Christ now dwells in each and every believer.  This risen champion of heaven lives in me!  That’s an amazing truth—something that not even the prophets understood.

Buddhists have never claimed that Buddha lives within them.  Islam does not teach about Allah living in my heart.  There is no parallel in any other faith. 

That leads to second idea here: Paul says that this indwelling Christ transforms me.  From Colossians 1:24-2:5, here are all the ways the indwelling Christ is said to transform believers:

·         He gives us the hope of glory (1:27)

·         He gives us full riches of complete understanding (2:2)

·         He gives us all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3)

The point is not that with Jesus we get really smart, but that in Jesus we have connected our souls with the source of ultimate hope and truth. 

For Paul, this is so powerful that he’s willing, even happy, to follow the example of Jesus in suffering so that others might know this Jesus.  It’s powerful in its ability to change lives.  As I said two weeks ago, when the message of Jesus comes storming into a life, it’s no summer shower; it’s a tornado that re-orders everything. 

But it’s a very good tornado!

It’s so good that we have to do all we can to keep it from becoming a religion!  That’s the danger that occupies the rest of chapter two.

Now let me repeat what I said a few minutes ago: religion—almost any religion—can have a socially beneficial effect.  It teaches good behavior, basic morality.  I think the reason that the ethics or behavior taught by all world religions is so similar is that God has imprinted the basics of right and wrong on our souls, on us as image-bearers of God.

But ethics or morality can only take you so far.  It can make you a more tolerable—and tolerant—person.  But—and here’s the central truth—it cannot take you to God.  Only God Himself can do that, and He does it through the bloody cross of Jesus.

When religion makes the claim that it can connect you to God, it speaks the worst blasphemy ever. 

I want you to think of the worst thing some absolutely godless, God-hating person ever said in your presence.  I think back to a man named Darryl.  His elderly parents were both believers, but he’d rejected the faith.  His father had been infirm for years, and finally died a few days before Easter.  We actually had the funeral on Good Friday.  It seemed that for Darryl, the days were full of agony.  He seethed with anger throughout the funeral.  At his mother’s suggestion, I met with him the day before Easter as he railed against the very idea of God.  He wasn’t just a non-believer, he was an anti-believer.  At one point he pointed out the window.  “See that leaf on the tree?  When it falls to the ground, there’s more real power shown than any so-called god has ever done.”        

When Jesus encountered the most “anti-God” people of the time—prostitutes, tax collectors (who were more like mobsters than IRS agents), pagans and so on—He never once was angered by their words or deeds.  Want to get Jesus anger?  Put a religious hypocrite in front of Him—people who rip off worshippers in the temple with money-changing tables, people who want to stone a woman caught in adultery, people who wanted recognition for the great holy humility. 

It’s this spirit of anger at hollow religion that echoes loud here in Colossians 2.  And Paul says, listen people of God, resist the pull of religion. 

First, he says, resist hollow philosophy and human tradition that’s at the core of religion (2:6-8):

Here’s the good way (6-7)…

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Here’s the wrong way (8)…

 ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

(“Basic principles” are things like, “If you want God’s blessing, you have to earn it.”  Grace—that God wants to bless people who haven’t earned anything is not a “basic principle” that would seem natural to anybody.)

Next, he says, resist external religious ceremony as any sort of means of God’s blessing (2:9-15).  The specific ceremony that he has in mind is the Jewish practice of circumcision. 

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

(That’s a wonderful passage in itself; we touched on it last week; “you have been given fullness in Christ”; that equals the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”)

¹¹ In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

(The reason that Paul brings this up is because, like the false teachers he takes on in Galatians, this error also said that the Jewish religious ritual of circumcision should be binding on all male Gentile believers as well.  Paul says that now, baptism portrays what God does in our souls—buried with Christ in His death, risen with Christ in His resurrection…) 

 ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.   

But even baptism is seen simply as an external signal of the internal transformation of the real person by the power of the Christ—not as a saving ritual.  We continue to use external signs like baptism, the Lord’s Supper, laying on of hands, anointing with oil and so forth, but never with the belief—the religious belief—that these external rituals have any power in themselves.  The power is in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

Finally, Paul says, resist earthly laws and speculations because they lack real, spiritual, transforming power. 

If someone regards himself as “spiritual”, as “religious”, let me tell you how he’s going to lord it over you:  he will tell you about his special diet, his special calendar and his special visions.  And that’s exactly what Paul addresses in 2:16-23:

 ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ 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.

 ²⁰ 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: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. ²³ 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.

Again, this is largely, but not entirely lifted from Judaism.  What the NT teaches about Jewish ritual is not they such rituals and diet restrictions and observances were or are wrong, but that they were simply preparatory.  As Paul says in vs. 17, “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”  So if you want to keep a kosher table, you’ve done no wrong unless you believe that such a diet makes you more spiritual than other people. 

These things all seem so small because Jesus is so very large.  Human tradition—it’s so large until it runs headlong into the greatness of Jesus, who puts all tradition into perspective as He brings in truth that’s eternal.  Religious ritual—it seems so timeless, until it runs into the one through whom the whole creation was made—the one in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.  Religious laws seem so powerful until they are they are overshadowed by the reality that is found in Christ.

Can I say something that seems so obvious, but needs to be said anyway?  Jesus Christ is great.  I don’t mean like frosted flakes great, I mean really GREAT. 

I can’t do any better than an awesome man of God named Shadrach Meshach Lockridge.  He was pastor of Calvary Baptist of San Diego from 1953 to 1993, and he’s home with Jesus now.  His best known sermon was “That’s My King”; we have a segment of it to see now…

-MY KING video-

This video can be viewed at

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upGCMl_b0n4

 

I wonder; do you know Him?