Let Nothing Get between You and Jesus
Part Two: The Danger of Religion
Colossians 2:6-23
The world of the
Bible was very different from our world—that is, in the western, developed
world. But there are many ways in which
the attitudes and beliefs that you’ll find in the developing world are much
more like that of the world of the Bible.
One common belief is
the reality of spirits, both good and evil, that affect our lives. If you go to Latin America, or Africa, or
Asia—or to the ancient world, including the Greek and Roman world, you’ll find
that to be part of everyday folk religion.
Even among the Jewish people of the time this was also true. This is not just the belief that angels and
demons exist, but the belief that there are ways to offend or appease them, and
even to manipulate them for your purposes.
Every faith has the
official “above ground” faith and the unofficial “below ground” faith. We sometimes call that “folk religion.” Judaism in the time of Jesus and Paul had the
“above ground” faith expressed by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but there
are parts of the “below ground”
faith that may surprise you.
In “below ground”
Judaism, you had all kinds of crazy things. People wore amulets to ward off the evil
eye. Sometimes, Jews away from the
Israel built their own temples—even though that was forbidden by the Law of
Moses. But above all else, in folk
Judaism, there was a great interest in demons, angels and manipulating them to
bring health, prosperity and happiness.
Understanding this
is key to understanding some of the strange things that Paul writes about here
in Colossians 2. There are reasons to
believe that Jewish exorcists had come alongside some early believers and that
some ideas from folk Judaism were infiltrating the church there. These ideas undermined the simple truth of
“Christ alone.” The idea they were
falling for was “Christ plus religion” and here the religion was Jewish folk
religion.
There’s a person
mentioned in Acts 19 that may help us understand what this is all about. In Acts 19:13-16 we read:
13 Some Jews who went
around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over
those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom
Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven
sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15
One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about
Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who
had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such
a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
I know it’s kind of
funny—especially that last part. But
here’s what you need to know. Sceva was
part of a folk tradition that had existed in Judaism for hundreds of years. There were others who did this, like a man
named Eleazar in Rome, and these Jewish exorcists got a reputation among the
Gentiles for their expertise in manipulating evil spirits.
Their approach was
to invoke the names of angels in order to expel demons. They used names we know from the Bible—like
Michael and Gabriel—as well as a bunch of names of angels that we don’t know
from the Bible: Ouriel, Raphael, Sabao, Abrasax and others.
These guys claimed
that the power to defeat demons by invoking angels came from a wisdom that was
handed down from Solomon. In a book
called The Testament of Solomon, written probably in the first century BC,
Solomon interrogates 36 demons and forces them to reveal what incantation
defeats them.
Why 36? That’s one for each 10 degrees of a 360
degree circle. In The Testament of
Solomon, the first interrogation goes this way:
Solomon asks, “Who
are you?” The spirit relies, “I am the
first decant [10 degrees] of the zodiac, and I am called Ruax. I cause the heads of men to suffer pain and I
cause their temples to throb. Should I
hear only, ‘Michael, imprison Ruax,’ I retreat immediately.”
So you get the
pattern: 36 evil spirits, their names, what harm they do and how to invoke an
angel to stop them. That’s what Sceva
and Eleazar and who knows how many of these folk exorcists were doing.
This is the
essential background to understand what Paul is talking about here in
Colossians 2. When Paul talks about the
“basic principles” in vs. 8 and 20, the “powers and authorities” in vs. 15, the
“worship of angels” in vs. 18 and the observance of Jewish law and harsh
self-treatment in vs. 16-23, that’s all related to the beliefs and practices of
Sceva and those like him.
The application of
what he says is broader, though. It’s
still of question of adding something to the simplicity and the wonder that is
the gospel of Jesus.
Now let me repeat
what I said last week: 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 worshipers 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”—the Greek word here is notoriously hard to translate. It’s stoicheia. The word is used of things in a row, like
letters of the alphabet. They are
“basic”, like building blocks. But I
don’t think “basic principles” is a good translation. Maybe more like “elementary spirits.”
This exact
word is used to describe the evil spirits of the zodiac in The Testament of
Solomon. Paul is saying that “hollow and
deceptive philosophy” has its roots both in “human tradition” (people’s ideas)
as well as from the stoicheia spirits.
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 folk religion error in Colossae also said that the Jewish
religious ritual of circumcision should be binding on all male Gentile
believers as well. But Paul says that
now, it’s baptism, not circumcision, that portrays what God does in our
souls—buried with Christ in His death, risen with Christ in His resurrection—this
is our spiritual circumcision.)
He goes on,
vs. 13-15:
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.
Paul tells us
that 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.
Here Paul
mentions the “powers and authorities”, and it’s also the same as the evil
spirits from Solomon’s zodiac. There’s a
very similar passage in Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark
world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The rulers, authorities and powers are again
the same beings: the elementary spirits that claim to run things around here on
earth and the spirits that that guys like Sceva said they could manipulate. But Christ has triumphed over them, and He
did so on the cross!
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. Part of the Jewish exorcist tradition was
that you had to engage in strict observance of all these things as you prepare
for an exorcism. 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 [that’s theskeia, which means
more “ritual” than just “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 [the stoicheia] 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
lifted from folk Judaism. What the New Testament
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. The exorcists believed that these things
actually gave you spiritual power to control evil spirits.
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.
All this angel stuff seems so small next to Him.
Now how, does all
this come home for us? The first and
most obvious is this: any religious
practice or concept that suggests that we need someone or something beside the
Lord Jesus for our well-being, now or eternally is false and must be resisted
100%.
Again, it’s Christ
alone: not Christ plus angels or Christ plus exorcism, Christ plus rituals,
Christ plus saints, Christ plus psychotherapy, Christ plus tradition, Christ
plus denomination. It’s just
Christ—Christ alone.
God is a jealous
God. Twelve times God describes Himself
that way in the Old Testament. Why? Well, God alone deserves worship. But it’s also because if we spread our
worship around to anyone or anything that is unworthy of our worship, we are
harmed as well. It’s like crossing a
steam with one foot on a sure steady rock and the other on a slippery, wobbly
stone. We’re the one who’s going to end
up all wet.
So, beware of
religion in all its forms. It’s
dangerous. The Jesus way isn’t a
religion. It’s a renewal, it’s a
revolution, it’s a relationship, but it’s not a religion.
Let me give you a
second come home application: be
especially wary of “folk” additions to faith in Jesus Christ.
I don’t think too
many Christians are tempted to add Muhammad or Buddha to their faith. But “folk” add-ons are much more tempting
since they are seem so minor.
It would be easy now
for me to bag on certain churches that add on the adoration of saints and so
forth, and that’s certainly included.
But let’s think about the things that some of us do or think that may be
folk add-ons that we’re fallen for.
Here are some folk
concepts that you’ll find on the Protestant side of the fence:
·
The
King James Version is God’s anointed translation
·
No
one get saved unless they walk down the aisle at the end of a church service
·
Peter
will meet you at the pearly gates
·
Angels
have wings, live on clouds and play harps all day
·
The
devil is red and carries a pitchfork (he has a red tail too)
·
God
helps those who help themselves
·
And
on and on…
But I’ve got to give
you one more “bring it home” from this passage.
While the Sceva kind of exorcists had some bad ideas, they were right
about this: the devil is real. Demons—fallen
angels—are real. Angels are real. The spiritual world is real.
Demonic attack is real.
Christ is the answer, the solution.
I don’t need some amulet or ritual to protect me; Christ alone is
enough. I don’t need to call on angels
or saints; Christ alone is enough. I
don’t need laws and rules and regulations or visions of ecstasy to protect me;
Christ alone is enough. “In the name of
Jesus, be gone!” is enough. He is
enough!
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