Christ our head

What was the problem with eating, drinking and special days?

• It had to do with Mosaic law
  • Many Jewish Christians had a challenge moving away from Mosaic law
    • Food restrictions
    • Festival days
    • Sabbath
    • Circumcision
  • Peter took some time to understand and change (Acts 10:9-16)
  • Many were teaching that salvation depends on circumcision according to the custom of Moses (Acts 15:1-2)
  • This was serious enough that Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem, to all the elders, for clarification on dos and don’ts (Acts 15:23-29)

How is Mosaic law a shadow of things to come?

• Eating:
  • Passover food symbolic of Christ sacrifice
• Sabbath
• Circumcision:
  • Of the flesh vs of the heart
• Festival days

Do we still have issues with self-imposed religious rules today? Examples?

• What we eat:
  • Certain folks may still avoid eating pork because of Mosaic law
• What we drink:
  • Alcoholic drinks
• How we look / dress up:
  • Church clothes? Hair specifications?
• How we spend certain days:
  • Sundays?

Who should we firmly hold on to? Why?

• Christ
• Christ is our head:
  • As a body follows head, so should we follow Christ
• Christ is above all:
  • Angels are under Christ,
    • we should not be worshipping angels
• Christ is the only way to God
  • Our self righteous actions
    • cannot save us
    • Cannot justify us in front of God
• We belong to Christ

Conclusion:

• Christ is above all, is the head, our only way to God and we belong to Him alone.
• Self imposed religious acts, precepts and doctrines of men, mean nothing

Passage Colossians 2:16-23 – World English Bible (WEB)

16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, 17 which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s. 18 Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.

20 If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances, 21 “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch” 22 (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Notes / Cross references:

Church at Colossae was primarily made up of gentiles and perhaps a few from Jewish background

Acts 10:9-16 Now on the next day as they were on their journey, and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about noon. 10 He became hungry and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth, 12 in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky. 13 A voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!”

14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

15 A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.” 16 This was done three times, and immediately the vessel was received up into heaven.

Acts 15:1-2 Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers,[a] “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.” 2 Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. 

Acts 15:23-29 They wrote these things by their hand:

“The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings. 24 Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law,’ to whom we gave no commandment; 25 it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”

1 Corinthians 10:20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.