Substance Over Shadows / Colossians 2:16-23

The Sufficiency of Christ and the Threat of the Scalpers

Well, good to see you here this week, church. I hope you are doing well. Do me a favor: if you have a Bible with you, turn to Colossians chapter two in your New Testament. We are going to continue our study in the book of Colossians. If you are just joining us, we have been studying for the past several weeks this small little book in our New Testament known as the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Colossae.

Throughout this entire letter, if you were to pin down the central note we are seeing, Paul has been trying to show us that everything we need in this life—everything you and I need for our salvation, for our growth and maturity as Christians, for our human flourishing, and for our joy—is fully and sufficiently found in Jesus Christ. That is what this letter is all about.

Last week, whether you heard Josh Hawley or Brad Bell, you heard the crescendo of this letter in verses 9 through 15 of chapter two. That in the fullness of God that is in Christ, we are complete in Him. The biggest debt that you and I owed because of our sin unto God, which alienated and separated us, was completely canceled out in Jesus Christ. He has forgiven the debt. He has bridged the gap. He has reconciled us to the Father. Currently, that same gospel that saved us—that same grace that saved us through Jesus Christ—is also seeking through the power of the Spirit to root us, build us up, and establish us in Christ so that we might be overflowing with joy in our lives. That is what the gospel began, and that is what the gospel is continuing to do in our lives.

As we dive into these last few verses in Colossians 2:16–23, the Apostle Paul is going to say this: in light of the fullness you and I have received in Jesus Christ, and in light of the complete supremacy and sufficiency that is in Jesus, remember three things.

First, do not let anybody come along and judge you on a basis other than Jesus Christ and the work He did for you on the cross. Do not let anybody tell you that you are justified before God, qualified before God, or that your joy and flourishing in this life rest on anything but Christ and Christ alone. Do not let anybody serve as judge and jury over you.

Second, do not let anybody defraud you. Do not let anybody come along and steal what you have been given to trade a greater thing for a lesser thing.

Third, in light of this fullness you have received in Jesus Christ, do not go back and start resubmitting yourself to the playbook that the world operates on that you once walked in. That is not who you are anymore. That is not what Christ has done.

That threefold movement is where we are heading. Essentially, what the Apostle Paul is going to do in verses 16 through 23 is explain what we saw back in verse 8.

Colossians 2:8 (NASB)

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Paul said, “See to it that no one takes you captive.” Literally, that word means nobody makes you a slave. Nobody takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. In verses 16 through 23, Paul explains what those traditions of men were that were seeking to influence the church at Colossae—the empty deceptions, the elementary principles of the world, and the philosophies. This is the clearest text we have in all of Colossians regarding the exact nature of the heresies facing the church, and in many ways, what you and I are facing today as well. He is saying that these false teachers are not selling you a ticket to freedom; they are selling you a ticket back to slavery the moment you abandon Christ for these other things.

I do not know if you have ever had an experience where you had a ticket to something great, and then you got duped into trading it in for a ticket that led you to something lesser. But I know exactly when that happened to me: April 7, 1990.

Many of you know that I grew up in Texas. I am a Texas fan, rooting for sports teams in Dallas. But many of you probably do not know that I was actually born in Chicago. Growing up, I had this tension in my sports world between Chicago teams and Dallas teams. Whenever they played each other, there was always this tough conflict. But I grew up a Chicago fan through and through—and that is why I will say right now, go Cubs! All the way. Sorry, Dodger fans, this is a safe place today; there is healing in this room.

That being said, I was a fan of the Chicago Bulls long before Michael Jordan ever came on the scene, back in the ugly days of Chicago basketball. When Michael came on the scene, he instantly became one of my heroes. In 1990, as a sixteen-year-old living in Dallas, I did not get the opportunity to see Michael Jordan play live very often. But he came through town on April 7, 1990, and I had my heart dead set on going to see Michael Jordan play.

My stepfather, Eddie—super great guy—wanted to hook us up. He said, “Man, I am going to find a way. We are going to get tickets to this game.” The problem was the game was sold out, and there was no way to get tickets through official channels. So we did the most ethical thing you can do: let’s go buy from scalpers. We headed downtown outside Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. As we approached, two scalpers were immediately in front of us. The first one flagged us down. He had pretty good seats—not awesome, but pretty good—at a high price, but we had enough money. We could get them and get in.

We were literally about to make the transaction to grab our guaranteed seats to go see Michael Jordan play. By the way, to give you the ending of that game: Michael Jordan passed to John Paxson with no time left on the clock, Paxson hit a three-pointer, and the Bulls won by one point. Epic game!

I was about to grab the tickets to that game when this other scalper right down the road started yelling, “Don’t buy from him! Don’t buy from him! I got what you need! I have better seats than this guy at a cheaper price!” My stepfather said, “All right, Shea, stay right here. I’m going to go grab these.” He ditched the sure tickets we had and ran down to this other guy. He came back stoked and excited, and I was excited. We had these Bulls tickets and were going to see Michael Jordan.

We got our tickets and were walking to the gate. I looked down at the tickets, and fear just came over me. I said, “Oh, Eddie… These are not only not better seats, these are Paul McCartney tickets! These aren’t Chicago Bulls tickets, Eddie! What have you done to us?”

Some of you in this room right now are thinking, “Wait a minute, Paul McCartney is an upgrade for me!” No, that is blasphemy! Paul McCartney was playing on his world tour that same day, but I did not care. I did not want the Beatles; I was going to see Michael Jordan play against the Dallas Mavericks. We panicked because in one moment, we got duped. We had sure tickets for something I had always wanted to see, and we traded them for something that was completely wrong for that arena and actually disqualified us from getting in.

Now, I am going to ruin my illustration right here because some of you are curious about what happened. We ended up using that fraud to create our own fraud right after that. This was back in the B.C. days, before they had electronic scanners for tickets. You would just hand your ticket to the attendant, and they would rip it and let you in. We thought we would try it. Sure enough, they ripped our tickets and let us in. We watched the entire game standing in the wind tunnel between sections because we had no actual seats, but we saw the game! I confess that right up front; all has been forgiven in Jesus Christ, and we are good.

The point is that I almost lost a sure thing. In the same way, what the Apostle Paul shows us here is that in the early days of the church at Colossae, there were spiritual scalpers hanging around the church. These scalpers were yelling at the top of their lungs, trying to convince believers that what they had been given in the fullness of Jesus Christ was not enough and that they had a better deal. They promised life for your soul, but in reality, you were being duped into something that would disqualify you from the fullness found in Jesus Christ.

Paul walks through three things we need to be on guard against so we do not get scalped by false teachers.

1. Do Not Let Anyone Judge You on Religious Performance

In light of the fullness that is in Jesus Christ, do not let anyone judge you on the basis of religious performance.

Colossians 2:16 (NASB)

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day–

“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” No one is to act as your judge. These false teachers were acting as the ultimate judge and jury, trying to convince the Christians in Colossae that what they needed to stand qualified before God—to find grace, forgiveness, spiritual growth, and joy—was Jesus plus something else, or even Jesus minus something else.

The two things they threw down that supposedly qualified you in addition to Jesus were holy food and holy days. These are the exact same topics discussed by Paul in Romans 14 concerning mature and immature Christians. But in Colossians, we are not just talking about two kinds of Christians disagreeing; we are talking about being disqualified by buying into a false gospel. Paul says these false teachers demanded adherence to certain rituals and abstaining from certain things in order to qualify before God.

We know there were Greek philosophical influences seeking to corrupt the church’s reliance on the supremacy of Christ. But because of this passage, we also know there were Jewish influences present as well, and even a hybrid of the two. The reference to food and drink points to the kosher dietary laws given in the Old Testament to distinguish what was clean or unclean under the Old Covenant. Certain dietary restrictions had to be observed to be ceremonial clean before God. In verses 21 through 23, Paul quotes some of the legalistic approaches of these false teachers: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.” These teachers were pushing the church toward rigorous ascetic practices of abstaining completely from certain foods to be accepted by God. In other words: you can love Jesus all you want, but if you drink that drink or eat that food, you are unacceptable before God. That is “Jesus minus something.”

On the other side were the holy days. This referred to the weekly, monthly, and yearly feasts, festivals, and holidays that Israel observed: the Sabbath being weekly, the new moon monthly, and the festivals yearly—referring to the three annual pilgrimages for Passover, First Fruits, and Tabernacles. In this case, it was “Jesus plus something”: you had better adhere to these festivals and make your attendance sure, or else you are unacceptable before God.

Paul says this is not the gospel. We see the very same temptations today. Even though the specific practices may have changed, the categories are identical in our own hearts.

Some of you might feel like you are saved and qualified before Jesus Christ simply because you showed up at church tonight. You have been convinced along the way that your attendance and adherence to religious routines will merit favor before God. Others of you are in this room feeling like you have lost your salvation because of something you looked at or touched this week that you should not have. You think God must be furious with you, and His wrath is burning against you right now as a child of God. In that moment, Jesus’ work on the cross alone is treated as insufficient because it is no longer about what Jesus performed for you; it becomes about what you must perform for Him. The moment we do that, we have moved away from the gospel into legalism. That is not the gospel.

Paul says you must watch out for these false teachers. They want you to trade Christ’s work for your work. Last week, Paul reminded us that this is not about external circumcision of the flesh. External acts to qualify yourself belonged to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is about a circumcision of the heart—a work that Jesus accomplishes.

Paul is not saying that participating in feasts or honoring the Sabbath was inherently bad, nor that choosing to abstain from certain foods for health or discipline is wrong. What he is saying is that people fundamentally misunderstood why those things existed in the first place.

Colossians 2:17 (NASB)

things which are a [mere] shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

All along, those things were merely shadows. They were never meant to be the substance; the substance belongs to Christ. All the dietary laws, feasts, festivals, and sacrifices in the Old Testament were shadows of a future reality. They were never meant to save you; they were meant to show you your need for a Savior. They were never meant to grant you righteousness, but to reveal your unrighteousness and point forward to the true righteousness that was coming.

Every time you saw an animal sacrificed, every time you celebrated the Passover, and every time you honored the Sabbath, you were enjoying a shadow under an Old Covenant that prepared your heart for the New Covenant—a covenant not based on works we perform to merit God’s favor, but on the finished work done for us by Jesus Christ. Paul says, why live in the shadows when you have the substance?

Today, we are still tempted by shadows of performance: thinking that if we just do this or avoid that, God will finally love us. But God does not love you based on your performance; He loves you based on the performance of His Son. God’s people are not qualified by the food we eat or do not eat; we are qualified by the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. We are not qualified by the sacrifices we make; we are qualified by the One who knew no sin, became sin for us, and offered the ultimate sacrifice. We are not qualified before God by attending a religious event; we are qualified by the object of our worship, Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of God in bodily form.

Do not let anyone act as judge and jury over you, telling you that your worth, joy, and salvation are found in the work you do for Jesus rather than the work He did for you.

2. Do Not Let Anyone Defraud You on Religious Experience

Second, Paul says: do not let anyone defraud you on the basis of religious experience.

Colossians 2:18-19 (NASB)

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on [visions] he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”

Two things characterized these false teachers: self-abasement (or false humility) and the worship of angels.

The word for self-abasement implies insincerity—a false humility that pretends something holy is happening while really drawing attention to oneself. In today’s culture on social media, we call this a humblebrag. You see this all the time: “Hey y’all, please pray for me. I am just exhausted today because I’ve been interceding for the saints through fasting and prayer all day long.” Did you post that because you genuinely want prayer, or because you want everyone to know how spiritually elite you are? That is false humility—getting puffed up in your own perceived righteousness.

As for the “worship of angels,” some scholars understand this just like the warning in the book of Hebrews, where people were tempted to view angels as superior to Jesus and worship them directly. Another faithful nuance of that language is that these teachers were obsessed with the kind of worship that belongs to angels. Rather than worshiping angels directly, they were worshiping the experience of angelic worship. They were not content with worshiping Jesus in the ordinary, broken realities of everyday life. They possessed an insatiable desire for heightened, mystical, emotional worship experiences—longing to be caught up into the third heaven and worship on an ethereal plane.

This fit perfectly with Greek philosophy, which taught that the physical, material world was corrupt and that true spirituality meant escaping into a higher realm of knowledge. In ascetic communities like the Essenes, people would practice severe fasting to induce visions. They practiced extreme bodily denial to ascend into new spiritual realms. In many ways, that is what was happening here. These false teachers were trying to convince the church, “If you loved God like I love God, you would experience God like I experience God.”

We see the exact same thing in our modern culture within hyper-emotionalism, hyper-prosperity teachings, or hyper-mysticism. Instead of resting in who Jesus is and worshiping Him in the middle of life’s ashes and pain, we constantly try to manufacture an emotional escape. We act as if getting a specific ecstatic gift or reaching a spiritual climax puts us on the “varsity team” with God, while everyone else is stuck on junior varsity. It divides the body and pits believers against one another.

Look at what this did to the false teachers: Paul says they were “inflated without cause by their fleshly minds.” The literal Greek translation means they were full of hot air! They had created a mystical faith divorced from Christ, leading to arrogance. They bragged about the details of their visions: “Look at what I saw! I had an audible conversation with Jesus. I hung out with angels today; where have you been?”

Paul is not saying spiritual experiences or visions are bad; Paul had visions himself. But when prophets like Isaiah or Ezekiel experienced visions from God, it never made them arrogant or dismissive of others. They fell flat on their faces in true humility, in love with the Giver rather than the gift. Paul says: do not let anyone defraud you on the basis of religious experience. Anything requiring something more than Christ or less than Christ is not the gospel.

3. Do Not Resubmit to the World’s Bankrupt Playbook

Third, Paul warns us not to go back and resubmit ourselves to the playbook that the world operates on.

Colossians 2:20-23 (NASB)

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all [refer] [to] things destined to perish with use)– in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, [but are] of no value against fleshly indulgence.

“If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

The greatest battle you and I will ever face in this life is the battle against sin. Sin is what originally robbed us of our fellowship with God in the garden, and sin is what seeks to rob us of joy, contentment, and spiritual growth in Jesus Christ today. Paul says the fullness of what you need to battle sin and experience joy is found in Jesus Christ.

Yet these spiritual scalpers come along, claiming they have a better ticket. They may use Christian language and confess Christ, but they do not believe He is enough. They take the best human wisdom, legalism, asceticism, and mystical experiences, and they make them trump cards over the finished work of Jesus on the cross. They neuter the gospel. What they offer you is a counterfeit.

Why return to the elementary principles of the world—man-centered philosophies and human rules—to fight a battle that human effort has no power to win? This is why we must be discerning about where we receive counsel. There are places labeled as Christian counseling that are devoid of the only power that can transform the human heart: the gospel of Jesus Christ. While common-grace tools like medicine and wise advice have their place, any counsel that leaves out the person and work of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit simply dresses humanism in Christian clothes. That is no gospel at all.

Making up rigid rules and chasing mystical experiences cannot conquer sinful desires. Our external behavior is not the root issue; the root issue is a heart that wanders from God. Our problem is that we live in a fallen world and constantly exchange the fullness of Christ for lesser, functional saviors that fail to deliver. Self-made rules have the appearance of wisdom, but they have zero power to restrain the flesh. We do not need a new set of human decrees; we need to run to the cross.

Rejecting the Scalpers and Resting in Christ

In light of Paul’s warning, ask yourself: what voices are you listening to right now that are trying to drive you toward religious performance or religious experience apart from Jesus Christ?

We hear a million competing voices every single day through social media, news, friends, and culture. Every day, we are tempted to run away from the cross to find our joy, validation, and security in lesser things that will never satisfy. What voices do you need to repent of listening to?

Do not let anyone convince you that your worth, identity, and salvation are tied up in what you can do for Christ. Rest in what Christ has done for you. Do not let anyone defraud you into believing that your standing before God is determined by what you experience rather than what Christ experienced on the cross for you.

If you find yourself trapped by the legalism or mysticism of Colossians 2:16–23, the remedy is to return to verses 9 through 15. Reject the scalper—he is selling a counterfeit. Run back to the fullness that is in Jesus Christ and His gospel. Walk in Him, rooted, built up, established in the faith, and overflowing with gratitude.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. This message speaks straight to our souls because we know our own tendency to doubt and to entertain human philosophies that have the appearance of wisdom but are devoid of power. God, protect our hearts. Guard us from listening to the voices of spiritual scalpers. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, lead us to run continually to the fullness, sufficiency, and supremacy of Jesus Christ and His finished work. We pray this for Your glory and for our good. In Jesus’ name, amen.