Set Free from Religion that Enslaves Me

Well good morning! Whether you're here in the auditorium or watching over in the venue service, it is great to have you here with us today. I want to direct your attention to a little book by Richard Lederer. It is called The Bible According to Kids, and it compiles some of the actual things written about the Bible or said about the Bible by kids in Sunday school classes.

Now you might have seen some of these before, but this is a great little book that puts all these together. Things like this, Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night. Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients. That would be a miracle. The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. A Christian should only have one spouse, that's called monotony. No it's not.

The Bible According to Kids, now it's funny when a kid gets something wrong in the Bible, but when an adult misunderstands what the Bible teaches, it can really lead to some sad disasters. For example, according to recent research by the Barna group, check this out, 81% of self-professed Christians defined spiritual health as "trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible." I want you to just look at that statistic for a second. That right there is, in my experience as a pastor, one of the most common misunderstandings of what the Bible teaches.

And that is far more dangerous than any of the silly ways the children misunderstood the Bible. Because if you believe that, like apparently 81% of American Christians do, it will lead you to a life of bondage and slavery, and it'll drain your joy. And so starting this morning we want to attack that lie in a series that we're beginning called "Set Free." This is a little eight-week series that's gonna take us right up to Easter. It's a series in the book of the Bible called Colossians.

And so I want you to grab your message notes from the middle of your bulletins that look like this, and you'll be able to follow along with a message today. And here's what I want you to do every week during this series. Bring your Bible with you and crack it open to the book of Colossians. Now if you don't have your Bible with you right now, you can grab one of those brown TLC Bibles here in the auditorium and open it up to page 833. That's where the book of Colossians starts.

And over in venue they've got extra Bibles on the table in the back. And what I want you to kind of do during this series every week is kind of prop the Bible open to Colossians on one knee and put your sermon notes there on one page of that Bible. You can take notes, but you can also, if you have your own Bible, write things in the Bible that you're learning and studying about this book, because I want to teach you methodology about how to get through a book of the Bible verse by verse and really understand it.

It's almost like art appreciation, you know. When you understand why these different books of the Bible are written, you end up having a depth of understanding that really benefits you for the rest of your life. Now this series in particular, if you ever suspect that being a good Christian really boils down to trying harder to keep the rules. If you ever wonder whether God loves you because you feel like you've been underperforming as a Christian, if you've ever felt burdened by your religion, this study in the book of Colossians is really going to set you free.

In fact, this morning what I want to do is give you an intro to the book of Colossians, an overview to help you understand the rest of the weeks in this series. I call it set free from religion that enslaves me. And I want to see a quick show of hands here or over in Munskey Hall in the venue service. How many of you would agree that religion can enslave people at times? Anybody agree with that? Sure.

The Pew Forum said this past week in a new poll there is quote "a growing skepticism of organized religion, particularly among younger generations." Their poll found that Americans aged 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. However, you know what's interesting? As they continue to poll them, they found that they are not less likely to believe in Jesus. They're not even less likely to believe in Jesus as their quote "Lord and Savior." They just identify themselves as highly suspicious of religion.

Well guess what? The Bible is highly suspicious of religion. That might surprise you, but the Bible warns that religion can enslave people, can sap their joy, can ruin their lives. And that's specifically what the little book of the Bible we're starting to study this morning is all about. Before we get to the content today on the second page of the notes, on the first page I want to get to the context.

Here's the amazing background to this letter. This book of the Bible was actually a letter written to Christians in the city of Colossae called the Colossians because they live there. Now where is Colossae? Well check this out. If you looked at a globe and found Jerusalem and then went across the Mediterranean Sea toward what is now Turkey, you'd find Colossae along the Meander River near the beautiful Aegean Sea. It's just ruins now, but in about 50 AD when this city was at its height there was a brand new little Christian church there and it was in danger because the beautiful message of Jesus was getting crowded by all kinds of superstitions and morphing into something that Jesus didn't teach at all.

And alarm bells go off in the Apostle Paul's head when he hears about this and even though he's in prison he zings off an impassioned letter warning the Christian church in this area that they're about to go from the freedom of Christ to the bondage of religion. Now one reason that I'm so excited about studying the book of Colossians is because of all the places in the Bible this one seems to me to be the most like Santa Cruz in a lot of parallels. Just listen to them.

Colossae was actually in a resort area like Santa Cruz near a river that led to the ocean. One ancient writer said it was one of the most beautiful spots on earth so it had natural beauty in a Mediterranean climate. In fact if you look at pictures of it it looks like this could be a picture of Corralita, Sir Watsonville right here. Very similar climate. The parallels continue. They were subject to earthquakes like we are. Their industries were fishing and tourism and winemaking and the parallels go on.

Check this out there was another town about 90 miles or so northwest, Ephesus, and that was the major commercial and art center of their area very much like San Francisco is to Santa Cruz. And there was another town nearby, Heropolis, which was really considered sort of classier than Colossae. It was really the premier resort destination. Maybe a little bit like Carmel is to Santa Cruz right. There's a lot of parallels I could keep going into but the most important parallel for our study is this.

Colossae was a launching pad for new religions. It was known as a melting pot for all kinds of philosophies again a lot like Santa Cruz but this was a problem because the Colossian Christian's beliefs quickly began to be watered down. Now the exact content of their teaching is now lost but we can piece it together based on clues both from the book of Colossians and also from other ancient writers.

So jot this down in your notes. They believed in Jesus, true, but they also believed in occult knowledge. Occult knowledge. Now let me talk about this one for a second. The occult basically means hidden or secret or mystery and many scholars believe that the Colossian beliefs were the seed of a later teaching called Gnosticism. Now Gnosticism, that word comes from a Greek word meaning rather Gnostakos is the Greek word that's the root of it and that means good at knowing.

It implied a special class of elite people who had secret knowledge who said it's great that you believe in Jesus but to really get to the next level Jesus is kind of like entry level. They minimize the role of Christ. To get to the next level you need to be initiated by us into the occult secrets that only we masters can't teach you and so what were the kind of things that they taught the Colossians to believe? Well here's some of what these prophets told the people worship angels. Worship angels. Why? Here was their reasoning.

The world is so evil that a holy God cannot come near to it so he sends his angels layers upon layers of angels between us and a holy God so although you could never get in touch directly with a holy God with the help of us the wise masters we can teach you how to get in touch with your spirit being your they called them eons your spirit guide your angel and then that angel will talk to another spirit guide will talk to another spirit guide and eventually you'll get to hear from God through all these layers.

They also taught them to believe in astrology because they thought the physical world was evil astrology but the stars were seen as spiritual not worldly because they were high above the evil physical plane and so the Colossians grew to believe that the stars were another way that God could communicate his will to human beings perfectly and then finally they had all sorts of strange rituals and diets as if doing these rituals and keeping these dietary rules would make them more spiritual Christians.

Now look at this list. Do you see why I said this was the perfect epistle for Santa Cruz? The parallels are fascinating. In fact you could summarize all of this in a two-word phrase just jot this down somewhere in your notes Christ plus that defined the Colossians thinking. They believed in Jesus but they really minimized his role. As I said he was the entry into the Christian life but then they had to have all this other stuff to get to the next level.

How many of you have ever read C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters? Can I see a show of hands? It is a fascinating little book. It's about a senior demon named Screwtape and he is training his nephew who's a junior demon named Wormwood and it's a very funny book. It's written as if they're both in a multinational corporation. You got to read it if you never have but at one point Screwtape, the senior demon, finds out that one of his nephew's humans has become a Christian and he writes this bit of advice.

"My dear Wormwood, the real trouble with your patient is that he is merely Christian. What we want, if they become Christians at all, is to keep them in a state called Christianity and Christianity and the new psychology. Christianity and faith healing. Christianity and psychic research. Christianity and astrology. And that right there is a great description of Christ plus and a great description of what the Colossians were into.

Now before you judge the Colossians and think what a weird thing for Christians 20 centuries ago to be into, I think many Christians today believe like this. In fact, I know many Christians are like this because for years I was like this. Every new teaching that came out about the deeper life, man I had to hear it, or secrets to a better prayer life, give me the secrets I don't know now, or the hidden Bible Isaiah diet that's gonna make you supernaturally more healthy. I was right there. I believed in Christ plus I wanted to do a lot of other things in addition to be a really spiritual Christian.

Now what's the problem with this? This isn't in your notes but the end result of Christ plus thinking is really slavery because you're just never sure you've done enough. The guy came to my office one day and said René, I've done it all. Evangelical Christianity, Catholic pilgrimages, chakra tuning, past life regression, channeling, and I think I am going insane. I said why? He said because I look at all the catalogs of Christian books and new age seminars and special teachings that get mailed to me and emailed to me and I'm so worried I'm gonna miss one. I'm gonna miss the key one. What if one of these dozens of classes of groups that I haven't taken yet has the answer I'm missing.

For him it all led to exhaustion because he had no way to discern what one thing was more important than another and maybe you can relate to that guy. They tell you Jesus came to set you free but you feel like you're in chains again. Religious chains. That's because somebody once said there are really only two religious systems in the world. There's the religion of human achievement that says do and this is what the Colossian teachers were telling the Colossians do, do more. You got to do this, you got to do that, you got to try harder and a lot of Christians hear this even though they're in Christian churches.

It's kind of like the joke you might have heard about the guy in the airport who realizes he's forgotten his watch and he needs to know the time and so he sees a guy who's lugging two suitcases and he stops him and says hey buddy can you tell me the time and the second guy puts down these two very heavy suitcases looks at his watch and says yeah I can tell you the time here and wherever you're going and it looks like you've got an overweight bag there according to my phone and oh better get that Swiss Army knife out of your carry-on I can see it with my x-ray function on my watch and your body fat index is a little high and if I were you I'd really watch your cholesterol.

And the first guy says your watch tells you all that oh yeah that much much more the guy said I want that watch second guy says it's not for sale. One thousand bucks right now cash not for sale. Ten thousand dollars for that what ten thousand all right it's just a prototype but for ten thousand bucks it's yours takes it off gives it to him first guy straps it onto his wrist walks away smiling but the second guy lifts up both suitcases and says hey buddy you forgot the batteries.

And in many churches that is people's experience with Jesus. People are told Jesus is amazing and then once they buy into it teachers say oh and you have to do this and you have to do this and you have to keep these rules and they add all kinds of extra baggage onto it it's the religion of human achievement that says do but there's another religion a religion of divine achievement that says done.

What did Jesus Christ say on the cross? He hung on the cross and did he say it is pretty much done now the rest is up to you good luck friends. No he said it is what? It is finished. So what's the prescription how do I get set free from religion that enslaves me? Well Paul says in this letter focus on Christ alone not Christ plus and that's the theme for the whole book of Colossians look at some of the key verses and you can see why Paul does these things because they've been so minimizing the role of Christ he says no Christ is the visible image of the invisible God he holds all creation together by Christ God reconciled everything to himself so that now you are complete through your union with Christ that word complete there that's an awesome word and it's a key word in Colossians.

It occurs in its various forms over and over again in English it's translated fullness or completeness and you'll see it again and again everybody wants fullness in life right? Everybody no matter who you are here you want a sense of completeness of satisfaction and Paul saying don't get misled onto some wild goose chase thinking that your completion is going to come from some mysterious teaching that you haven't heard yet he's saying your completeness is found in just getting to know Christ and his infinite beauties and love better and better.

In fact here's a real key verse to the whole book so then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him he's saying remember how you became a Christian you just fell in love with Jesus well do that again now that's the way you grow you take away the distractions and simply purely focus on Christ you know there are people in churches all over the world longing to live like this.

There's a viral video out right now called why I hate religion but love Jesus it's by a guy named Jefferson or Jeremy Bethke he's just a 22 year old guy and he posted this video on YouTube January 10th it's an amateur video and when he went to bed that night he bet his roommates how many views it would have in the morning and the high bet was six thousand the low was one thousand and they thought that would be crazy he got up the next morning it had a hundred thousand views as I stand before you today it's had over 19 million views on YouTube and let me put that into context the number one rated TV show in America last week was Wednesday's edition of American Idol it had eight and a half million viewers so this has two times more than the number one network television show.

Now in an interview I read he said this is not an attempt to bash all religion or churches but rather quote to write a poem against legalism now it's very controversial but with all this in mind I want to show you just about 60 seconds of the end of the video and you tell me what you think watch this now back to the point one thing is vital to mention how Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums see one's the work of God but one's a man-made invention see one is the cure but the others the infection see because religion says do Jesus says done religion says slave Jesus says son religion puts you in bondage while Jesus sets you free religion makes you blind but Jesus makes you see and that's why religion and Jesus are two different clans religion is man searching for God Christianity is God searching for man which is why salvation is freely mine and forgiveness is my own not based on my merits but Jesus has obedience alone because he took the crown of thorns in the blood drip down his face he took what we all deserved I guess that's why you call it grace and while being murdered he yelled father forgive them they know not what they do because when he was dangling on that cross he was thinking of you and he absorbed all your sin and he buried it in the tomb which is why I'm kneeling at the cross saying come on there's room so for religion no I hate it in fact I literally resent it because when Jesus said it is finished I believe he meant it fascinating isn't it.

Now it's controversial because a lot of people say well we wish he would have said legalism not religion and that is what he intended but I think he's deliberately trying to be a little provocative there by saying religion versus Jesus but the sentiment that's behind it is certainly the sentiment behind well the epistles of Paul to the Galatians and here to the Colossians that Jesus came to stand against the man-made religion of human achievement and I don't show that video to endorse every single way he used every word but I show it to you to demonstrate that this is still a viable issue today that today in America in 2012 in less than three weeks 19 million people have watched that video because they long for an encounter with Jesus that goes beyond the religion of human achievement and that's exactly what Paul is saying to the Colossians.

He's saying you're drifting away from that into superstition and mythology and human achievement and rules and rituals and regulations he says get back to Jesus Christ and I want to show you how Paul does this if you have your Bibles I want you to look at Colossians 1 because I'm gonna read some verses that I actually am NOT going to put on screen just to get us used to looking at the text right there in our books and again those Bibles in the auditorium it's on page 833 Colossians chapter 1 but I want you to notice first of all Paul's tone how he talks about the benefits of Christ he doesn't talk about all that's wrong with the Colossians.

Remember when you're abrasive you're never persuasive to correct somebody's theology you don't have to put them on the defensive right he starts his epistle out he talks all about how great the Colossians are in verse 2 we're writing to God's holy people calls them holy people in the city of Colossae who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ we always pray for you verse 3 and we give thanks to God the father of or look we thank God for you for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God's people.

He doesn't falsely you know commend them for their great theology but he says we've heard of your love which come from your confident hope that God has reserved for you and have it skipped down to verse 6 this same good news that came to you is going out all over the world in other words this isn't just your little religion to play with and morph and treat as a smorgasbord this is a faith that's going out all over the world it's bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives.

Now watch his emphasis here just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace it started changing you on day one you didn't have to wait for higher teaching now go to verse 9 so we've not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you we asked God to give you complete knowledge of his will to give you spiritual wisdom now now that you know the background you understand how strategic it is for Paul to use those words they're going complete knowledge yeah we want that spiritual wisdom oh yeah we want that and Paul's saying well I pray for that too then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit and again he talks about knowledge and you'll grow as you learn to know God better and better buddy buddy has a slight little spin on it he says doesn't say you need to know new techniques or new teachings he's saying you just need to get to know the God who loves you already better and better.

So do you see what a beautiful tone he sets here he doesn't say since I first heard about your freaky cult I've been praying that God would convict you he says you guys are great and I just pray that you get to know God better and better and then he subtly starts in on his correction by telling them of the riches in Christ he says because of what Christ did for you jot this down number one you're already qualified I'm qualified through Christ to go to heaven I'm already qualified I'm already qualified through Christ to get every spiritual blessing I don't have to worry about that I don't have to do something or achieve something or to jump through hoops verse 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in the kingdom of light has qualified past tense I am qualified and number two I'm safe I am safe.

I'll tell you a story that's a little weird but it's true kind of about a modern collation when Laurie and I were going to seminary up in Portland Oregon we had a friend up in Oregon a Christian who became obsessed with a fear of demons and she learned all sorts of alleged counter demon techniques from all kinds of so-called experts and she would walk around her property as she put it stationing angels at all the corners of her land commanding them to stay there and guard her against evil spirits she was obsessed with learning more about spiritual warfare always living in fear and I told her you're thinking more about the devil and his angels than you are about Jesus Christ because I don't think she understood truths like this in the next verse for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Sun he loved he has rescued you from the dominion of darkness you don't have to live in fear anymore.

You know something that I've noticed is very common among Christians who stop focusing on Christ and start synthesizing other beliefs into their faith is that they begin to live in fear they begin to have less confidence when it comes to the future when it comes to even evil spirits when it comes to all sorts of these things and Paul saying you know what you're safe because Jesus Christ has rescued you don't spiral into all kind of a weird obsession on spiritual warfare and so on and then especially we have a hard time believing Paul's third point I am forgiven I'm forgiven.

Now right now you might feel guilty about something something you did last night or last week or last year and you still feel ashamed and you even came to church thinking about ways you could try to prove to God that you're still worthy but look at what this says in verse 14 God has purchased our freedom with his blood he has forgiven all our sins all again the picture of completeness or fullness you are fully forgiven right now even of that sin you are thinking of right now that still makes you guilty.

I mean look at this list maybe you say well this might be true Paul says this is true but it doesn't always feel true I don't know if I even believe this I don't know if I can say out loud I am qualified I am safe I'm forgiven it doesn't feel true well maybe because you've started to believe lies that are enslaving you maybe because you believe lies that are enslaving you for your whole life.

You ever seen an elephant at a circus or a zoo tethered to the ground by a little chain that's held to a little tent stake driven to the ground you ever seen this that it ever occurred to you how in the world does that little stake keep the elephant down he could rip it up out of the ground in a second you know the trainers do it when the elephant is born they tie the same chain and the same stake to it because when elephants are little they don't have the strength to break free they try 10,000 times to break free but they can't and so for the rest of their lives they never try again they believe the lie that that little stake holds them down.

Well some of you were told when you were little you need to always earn the approval of the important people in life you need to perform to be accepted and since God is the most important person in the universe you really need to perform hard for him God doesn't love he doesn't even like you you're no good you know try harder and you hear that and then you hear that God saves you by divine achievement that he says it's done but because of those lies you've heard your whole life you constantly slip back to do more that little stake of lies holds you back but it's a lie so pull it up tear it apart the truth is Jesus came to set you free.

So put these truths up you know they're in your notes tape them to your bathroom mirror where you're gonna see him every morning or tape them you know in your Bible or put them by your bed read them every day this week in fact here's an assignment for you why don't you just read the little book of the Colossians through this week and see all of the beautiful truths that Paul is telling the Colossians this is what's true of you you don't have to worry anymore this is the simple truth don't complicate it so this is just the briefest glimpse at Paul's letter to the Colossians but I hope it's got you kind of stoked that each week when you come back during this series you're gonna find remarkable truths that set you free.

The bottom line for Paul is to keep a simple focus on Christ and that's what we're gonna do right now as we get ready to close in communion but you know what listen even communion can get complicated right even communion can turn into a time where you're just sitting there focused on your sins instead of rejoicing in the fact that your sins are forgiven and focusing in Jesus.

I'll tell you a true story that you may have never heard before in Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper Jesus Christ's hands are empty but there's a story behind that da Vinci dedicated three years of his life to this painting determined it would be his crowning work and before the public unveiling he decides to show it to a friend whose opinion he totally respected his friend loves it and he keeps saying the cup in Jesus's hand is especially beautiful and da Vinci says thank you and immediately starts to paint out the cup and his friend is astonished and said what are you doing and da Vinci says in this painting nothing must detract from the figure of Christ.

In fact if you look at the painting closely this is the painting before the restoration you can see that the stem and the base of the cup was starting to be visible again as the later paint flaked off that da Vinci had put on top of it but da Vinci tried to paint out any distractions so people could focus solely on Jesus Christ and that is exactly what Paul does in this little postcard to the Church of Colossae he's painting out all their distractions and for the whole book he kind of riffs on the beauty and the love of Jesus and so I want you to do the same thing as we take communion now don't even focus on your sins focus on the forgiver.

My only question as your pastor to you is have you accepted the free gift offered by Jesus you know when da Vinci painted out the cup as you can see he made Jesus's right hand reaching out toward the viewer as if you're seated there with him at the table and in a way you are now and the question is have you simply reached out and taken his hand and received his free gift of salvation.

I want to give you that opportunity as we prepare our hearts to take communion let's bow our heads in a word of prayer with our heads bowed let me just say this here's a chance for you to remember that God wants a personal relationship with you just focus on Jesus now and say father here am I I want to begin a relationship with you through Jesus or maybe you you're already a Christian but you've been staked down by a lie that you've let get into your soul that you have to do more try harder but you've been reminded today the Bible says God has qualified you has made you safe has forgiven you and if you believe it you will find yourself soaring in his grace today.

God thank you for the simple truth thank you that by your grace you made all spiritual blessings possible because of the death burial and resurrection of the word made flesh Jesus Christ may we grow in an appreciation of Jesus as we study the book of Colossians it's in his name we pray amen.