Rules, Rules, Rules with Pastor Ryan Braley

If you’ve ever felt squeezed between “fit in with the culture” and “prove you’re serious with more rules,” Colossians 2 hits uncomfortably close to home. We walk through why the earliest Christians in a Greco-Roman town felt pressure to add Jesus to a shelf full of other gods and why that same a la carte approach still shows up today when we keep the perks of faith and quietly dodge the costly parts like surrender and enemy-love. 

From there, the tension shifts to religion itself. Some believers pushed the idea that faith in Jesus needed an upgrade: add Jewish holy days, food laws, and ritual practices to be truly complete. We slow down and define what people mean by “the law,” then dig into the Hebrew word Torah, not as cold legal regulation but as teaching, instruction, and a relational covenant meant to lead to abundant life. The problem is what happens when a gift gets twisted into a scorecard and a tool for judging who’s “in” and who’s “out.” 

The turning point is Jesus. We talk about what it means for him to fulfill the law, how love becomes the true center, and why Jesus himself becomes the boundary marker instead of rule-keeping. We close with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, a story that dismantles spiritual resumes and forces the real question: are we trusting ourselves, or are we trusting the God who raises the dead? 

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Transcript

Prayer And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

God, we give you thanks this morning for this word to us. We thank you for another beautiful day that we are here and that you are here. Your spirit is alive and well in us. And we ask God that you would come and give us new eyes to see, give us ears to hear, and open hearts and open minds. And uh do thank you for all the mothers in the room today and for the gift of life they brought to so many people. Thank you for the our own mothers. Whether we have a super healthy relationship with them or with them or not, we thank you for them that they brought us into the world. And uh we thank you for many of the the uh women in this room who are mentors and guides for other people and uh very motherly in that way, and so we thank you for that. Would you blust our time together this morning as we uh as we talk about this scripture in Jesus' name? Amen. Amen. You be seated. Morning, once again. My name is Ryan, and uh it's great to be with you guys this morning. And we are in week, I think week three or four of Colossians, and we're talking about the uh, you know, this letter that Paul writes to this church in Colossi. He wasn't actually, he wasn't a part of the church, he didn't plant it, he barely knew these people, and uh, but he writes this letter, and we're calling this whole series underneath it all. There's this great poem in the first part of Colossians where Paul sort of describes who Jesus is, and he is the kind of the cosmic glue of all things. He holds all things together, Paul writes. It's this beautiful idea and image of who Jesus is. And so underneath all of it, you could argue is Jesus holding it together. He's the sustainer of all living things. So perhaps those of people those people in your life that you think, oh, they don't have any Jesus in them at all. God, there's no, they're so far away from God. Perhaps Jesus is closer to them than they think or you think, because he's the one who holds all things together. And today we're on the second part of chapter two. Ben, I know Pastor Ben talked about Colossians two, the first half of last week. I was gonna title my sermon this morning, Rules, Rules, Rules. I changed it. The title is gonna be uh The Gospel According to Colossians, according to stick figures. Because I did, in fact, draw my own slides once again this morning. So buckle up. These are all handmade Ryan Braille originals. So last not bad, right? Not bad. Thank you, thank you. I went to school for theology and Bible, not art, but I do my best, I do the best I can. So last week, Ben talked about there's all these cultural pressures. This was a brand new church in Colossae. It wasn't a very big one. Colossae was this Greco-Roman town, very influenced by Greco-Roman culture. And everybody there worshiped gods. These Christians who are pretty new, this church, they're brand new Christians. They're uh they're like fresh out of the wrapper. They grew up worshiping all the Greco-Roman gods that sort of ordered their life and sort of taught them how to be in the world. And their lives were kind of ordained and ordered by these Greek gods. So gods like Apollo, Aphrodite, and Hermes. And the funny thing is about the slide, I try to just draw three individual, you know, sort of gods. And it looks though like they're like Aphrodite's blowing a kiss to Hermes. And Hermes, like, nah, I'm out of here. I got I got places to be, woman. I'm sorry, I got here. I got uh I got an endorsement deal meeting with Good Year Tire in a minute. Thank you. That's a funny joke. Go look at their logo later on. And then Apollo's over here, like, I hey, I'm just chilling with my harp over here. I got nothing else to do. So they grew up worshiping these gods, and now there's this pressure around them. Hey, you guys need to assimilate back into Greco-Roman culture and worship all the gods. Just add the temptation was to just add Jesus among all the other gods. I'm so glad we modern Christians don't have this problem. Where we're tempted just to take sort of a la carte, like Ben said last week, like a buffet style, like add a little bit of this, a little bit of this, a little bit of Jesus. The problem with that is if I just add a little bit of this, maybe a little bit of that, and maybe a little bit of Jesus, I usually tend to leave all the hard parts that Jesus called me to, like death to myself, uh, loving my enemies. I'm like, I'll pass on that. I'll just take all the other good stuff that Jesus offers. You know what I'm saying? So Paul's like, don't do that. The second thing, now in the second half of chapter two, Paul warns them there are people in your midst, probably, we don't know for sure, but probably Jewish Christians, folks who have were strictly observant to the law, and they observed the law, they were the Jews, and they they'd become Christians as well. They began to pressure the Colossians, saying, hey, your faith in Jesus is not complete. You need to add to it also the Jewish laws that we have been observing for many years. So Jesus plus some of the Jewish laws, like some of the holy days. Anyone know what Jewish holiday this might be? Yeah, exactly. The festival of tabernacles or the festival of tents. Nice, I don't know who said that, but good poll. Nice job. So they were pressured, hey, hey, not just Jesus, but observe Jesus and these holy days. Also, kosher laws. You need to follow Jesus and kosher laws. Don't eat shrimp, don't eat pork, these kind of things. Also, other Jewish rituals like circumcision. Like, where is he going with this one? What's he gonna put up on the screen? This is a family show. That was true in Galatians, uh, in Galatia. They were pressured. Hey, you need to be circumcised also. Your faith in Christ, in the Jesus, the one who sustains all things, is not complete. So you need to do this and the Jewish laws. But it raises the question, like, so Paul seems adamant, like, hey, don't observe the Jewish laws. Why would he argue that? Like, why would he say that? What's wrong with the Jewish laws? Like, I get the hey, don't worship other gods, like Aphrodite and Hermes and the Apollo, like, because you know, don't worship other gods before God. Like, we get that. But why not observe the Jewish law? Is the Jewish law bad? In fact, do you know where the idea comes from? Don't worship other gods before me? From the Jewish law. That was that was the law. So, like, why would Paul argue that? Why is he encouraging them not to obey the law? Which raises another question, like, what exactly, and maybe you're in this boat today because you're like, I grew up in this stuff, but I don't, what exactly is the law? What do we refer to when we meet when we say that? What do we mean by the law? What is the law? Because we say though, it's one of those like Christian or Jewish Christian or Judeo-Christian like terms that we all think we all know, but we're like, what does that mean exactly? Including myself, you know sometimes. Well, okay, the law means a number of things that are all a bit different, but they're all kind of linked. So here's what I mean. The law could refer, yeah, here's here's the question. Why shouldn't Gentile uh Christians, why shouldn't they observe the law? What's wrong with that? Uh so here's what I mean by the law. The law, it could refer to the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words. We know these, the Ten Commandments. Uh many of you know these. They're found in the book of Exodus. Um and uh Moses goes up on this mountain and God gives him these two tablets and he writes with his finger, apparently, these laws, these words. It's actually better to translate as words. So it's in. But did you know there were more than just ten laws that the or commandments or words that the Jewish people followed? There were actually about 613. So there's it refers to that as well. The whole set of these laws or these commandments or these words that God gave to the people. You could say, I mean, these are just like kind of less famous laws. The the 10 are the more famous one. This is like uh Michael. This is like uh, you know, Tito and Germain and Marlon and Jackie. Come on. I thought this crowd would get that for sure. Jackson 5. Okay. That might work at the next one. We'll see. Uh the the other 613, they were, they were also as important. They just were, they were less, less well known. So the law refers to the ten, also the whole body of the laws of 613. It also, as many times, like, you know, sort of anecdotally or uh in in any sort of enigmatic form, it refers to the first five books of the whole entire Hebrew scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as well. They call this the books of Moses or the books of the law, the books of Torah. Some people even refer to the entire, oh, I don't, uh, oh, I must not have been on that. The entire Old Testament as the law. So that's what we mean. When we say the law or the Jewish law, we mean these things. But here's the problem: the word law in English doesn't, there's no equivalent exactly to the Hebrew word that's behind that word. The Hebrew word behind the word law is the word Torah. Everyone said Torah.

unknown 8:50

Torah.

What Torah Really Means

When A Gift Becomes A Weapon

Two Tiers Of Christianity

Jesus Fulfills The Law

Pharisee And Tax Collector Parable

Invitation To Trust Jesus

SPEAKER_00 8:51

You might have heard of this word. And uh Torah doesn't really just mean, like when we say law, a law is a legal regulation. But that's not what Torah is. Torah is not just a legal regulation, it was something deeper and more rich. Actually, Torah means something less like law, something more like uh teaching or instruction or guidance, like a roadmap, if you will, or a framework around life, if you will. So you have to understand like what the Torah was not and what it was. The Torah was not simply legal regulation. It wasn't just legal regulations and those kinds of laws have no relational value. Well, no relation, no relationship necessarily. But the law, the Torah did. The Torah was a relational covenant between God and the people of God. It was deeply relational. It was not just a legal document or a legal regulation, it wasn't that at all. It doesn't just tell them what to do, what not to do. No, it was like this beautiful way of life for the people of God, given them from God in a covenantal, almost like a marriage ceremony kind of thing. It was deeply relational. The law was also not about earning anything. It wasn't about earning God's favor or earning your own salvation. It wasn't a score sheet or like you're building a portfolio of all the wonderful things you've done, or like, you know, trophies you're collecting. It wasn't that at all. They weren't earning anything. That wasn't what the law was. The law, rather, was just about a life, living abundant life, a full life. Like, hey, follow these ways, live in these ways. It's instruction, guidance, a roadmap, and your life will go well for you. In fact, many times God tells the people of Israel that just this. So, for example, Deuteronomy 12 says, observe and hear all these words. By the way, you could, it's better to interpret the Ten Commandments as like the 10 words, because you get less of a legal regulation kind of an idea, more like this relational, like this thing that God spoke to them. So follow these, which I give you, that it may go well with you and your children. This is what we do with our kids, right? Like, hey, don't touch the stove, and life will go better for you, trust me, you know, and they touch it anyway, whatever. Um, when you do what's good and right in the eyes of God, it's God is not like trying to just like you guys better behave. And no, it's like, hey, let me show you the right way to live. Walk on the path that's easier. There's less brambles, less predators, less dangers. Just follow my ways and life will go up for you. It wasn't just about earning anything, it was like a way of life. And when they obeyed it, when they lived in concert with it, it was their way of expressing gratitude to God. Like, thank you, God, for choosing us and for like living with us and through us and around us. It also was not offense to keep people out. This one bears repeating. Uh, it was not offense. Like, hey, keep them out of there. They're not like us, like all their pagan neighbors. It was like a delineation marker, which I'll get to in a minute, but it wasn't like a way to lord it over like we're we're so much better because we have all these blessings, and you suckers don't. They were never to hoard the blessings. Now, don't get confused, okay? Uh, just a quick caveat. America and and this ancient nation of people, this ancient people of God are wildly different things, okay? So the diff one of the things that people get in trouble is they take this and they project it forward onto American geopolitics. You can't do that, it's entirely different. So just, you know, let me say that. So it was an offense, though. The people of God, the people, the Hebrew, the ancient Hebrews were always meant to be a blessing to those around them. It rather than offense, it was like a boundary marker. It told them just who they were. Like, hey, you're not like your pagan neighbors. I don't want you guys to sacrifice your children. Don't do that. Uh, don't have a multitude of, you know, uh um, whatever the laws were like, don't do that. I want you to live uniquely and differently than the people around you. So it told them who they were and how they were different than their neighbors. It also told them why God had chosen them. Hey, I'm gonna give you guys a blessing because you're, you know, Abraham and Sarah showed great faith in me. So I'm gonna bless them. And the the idea was that they would be a blessing to others. So it also showed them their mission in the world. Their mission was not to build a huge fence and live high off the hog in and of themselves and just build bigger castles and be. No, they were to always share it. They were to be a royal priesthood, a priest to represent God to the people and the people back to God. So they were like to be a conduit, excuse me, man. I'm gonna throw this dry of blessing for the whole entire world. They were to show their pagan neighbors, here's what it looks like to live with God. So here's a picture of that. So God would bless Abraham and the family, and that blessing would go on to the tribe, and then the nation, and ultimately the entire world. Does that make sense? Okay, to three of you, it does. Great, excellent. So glad I drew that all that up. That's good. That was what the law was. It showed them who they were, why God had chosen them, and what their mission in the world was. See, here's the problem. Modern Christians look at the law, generally, some people, they're like, oh, that was just a meaningless nothing. We don't need that any longer. It was just nothing. It was meaningless. It was empty. It's empty. It's just, they're just it's just earning their faith by work, or earning their salvation by works. And as though Jesus just shows up like, hey, that was nothing back there. I'm here now. And we slap Jesus on the law. No, no, no. I mean, for 1200 years, the law was deeply meaningful. The Torah was a gift from God, it was a covenant with the people. How would you know to live with the divine unless the divine showed you how to know how to live with a God? What does that look like? This cousin, let me show you, let me give you a roadmap for how to do it. It was extremely valuable and meaningful for the people. They love the Torah. It was a gift, an absolute gift from God. So, why then does Paul warn the Colossians not to bother with it anymore? If it was a gift, like this beautiful roadmap, and show them like how to live with God, why would Paul like, ah, we don't don't worry about that? Why would Paul say that? Well, here's why. Even though it was never meant to be a fence to keep people out, uh, it was never meant to be a way of earning anything, it was never meant to be any of those things. After many, many years, it had become those things for the people. Because sometimes we humans we take a good thing and we can make it not as good. Are you with me? And so Paul has to warn them. Okay, he does this in verse six. Hey, don't let anyone judge you by what you're eating or drinking, or with regard to which festival you're observing. Why would he say? Because folks had begun to judge others based on those things, which they had no business doing. These are how you lived with God, not a manner of how you judge others and how faithful they are to God. It's none of your business. Don't worry about that. Folks have been doing that. So we're like, hey, they're they're they're kind of using the law or the Torah in a negative way. Don't let them do that to you. He also writes to the Colossians Since you die with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of the world, why as though you belong to the world, do you submit to the rules of the world? Like, don't bother with that because the rules of the world are like, they're not healthy ones. It had become this unhealthy thing. So since regulations indeed have an is Sonia in here? Let me see Sanya. Okay. Could anybody give me a glass of water or something like that? Maybe just a bottle of water. Um, maybe is there an usher back there? I'm gonna choke on my own throat back here. Thank you, Greta. Thank you. Sorry, guys. Um okay, what there it looks like it looks like wisdom. It does, like, hey, don't do this and do this, and here's how you earn. But it's not wisdom at all. It's their it's it's false humility and their harsh treatment of the body. So just listen, it had become this defunct thing. And so Paul warns them against it. It's like there had become two groups within Christianity after Jesus. Those who are like, hey, listen, if you want to be down with God, you're gonna do all these things. Do them. That's how you're down with God. Meanwhile, the Christians, these new Gentile Christians, like, hey, I don't know. We love Jesus. We want to just follow him. Thank you, granted. Good grief, I'm gonna. Thank you. We'll edit the town after production. Sorry, I slurped in your ears. I'm sorry about that. Good grief. Okay, where was I? Um yeah, two. There was like these two groups, like, hey, do this and you'll be good with God. And these are like, hey, I don't know, we love Jesus. And it was just like this, there were like this two tiers of Christianity. Like those who were like good and those who were like way less good, you know what I mean? It's funny because I think this still exists. There's a story I I heard. Guy uh is in a in a transitional care unit dying. So the chaplain comes in. The chaplain is not the same religion, he's a Christian, but not the same special brand of Christian as the guy dying. And so the chaplain, though, goes in there to do the chaplain's job, to kind of bless the guy as he dies. Even though they're of a different stream of Christianity. Well, the pastor priest figure of the guy who's dying comes walking into the room. And he said, I swear, he says this to the guy, to the chaplain none of that counted. Because you're not the same brand of Christianity as he as he and I are. Let me do it. He told the guy, the chaplain, hey, I know you blessed him in prayer, but it doesn't count because you aren't the same ilk of Christianity as I am. Why don't you leave now so you can really do the real thing? It's crazy. Now, the chaplain should have just been like, hey, go ahead. You know, blessings and but he also sort of lives in this, he's like, No way, that mine was real. You're and they started arguing about which version is real while the guy's dying. We've lost our minds. Just bless the guy and let him go with God. Is God not bigger than the shenanigans anyway? And there are these two tiers of Christianity. See, there was 1,200 years between the Torah, this gift from God, this beautiful gift, and when Jesus shows up. You like my Jesus up there? And for 1,200 years, the Jewish people had been like, what does it mean to obey, observe, fulfill the law? What does it mean? And they offered interpretation. And over 1,200 years, there were a variety of interpretations, a number of them. And then at the time Jesus shows up, they were arguing, no, my way's the right way. No, my way's the right way. Your way sucks. My way's right. My way's real, no, your way's terrible. And the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, there are a bunch of them. And they argued over which one was the right one. And Paul comes and say, Stop, Colossians. Don't get involved with that. It's just about Jesus. It's just Jesus. Because Jesus says in the Gospels, I've come not to abolish the law. It's not bad. The law was great, it's a gift. I've come to fulfill it. Meaning two things. One, I'm gonna properly interpret, I'm gonna show you the right interpretation. This is the way. My interpretation is the right way. Why? Because I'm God in the flesh, and I'm gonna explain God's words to you guys. Let me do it. And then two, I will perfectly put it on display. I'm gonna show you what it looks like to live it out. No one's done that before. So watch me. And then just follow me. Put your faith in me, your hope and trust in me. Live in my ways. And you will, then you will be a fulfiller of these things. Do that. In fact, he reinterprets all of the law by saying, Hey, love God, love others. Paul in Romans says, if you don't fulfill the law, it's love. Love is the fulfillment of the law, the Torah. So Jesus creates a whole new battle. Boundary marker. The boundary marker now is not the Torah itself, but it's Jesus. It's him. Okay, I'm gonna end with a quick story that puts us beautifully on display. Okay. Jesus, in his one of the gospels, in Luke's gospel, he's talking and he says this. This is the this I want to end. He says, like, hey, to some people who are around him, he's talking to some folks that were around him, who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Jesus tells them this parable. Okay, before I get there, notice he's talking to some people, and there were folks in the crowd who are confident of their own righteousness, the things they had done. What does that mean? They're using Torah as a way of earning, which wasn't what we're supposed to do. Secondly, they looked down on others. They built themselves a nice little fence. We're in, you suckers are out. We're not doing that either. So Jesus tells a parable, and it's brilliant. Hey, once upon a time there was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were mostly men, and they were strict observers of the law. They knew the law to a T. Every jot and tittle, that phrase actually is from Hebrew language, and they observed it strictly. These guys were, now I know they get a bad rap, but in the story, this is actually, he's a good dude. They go to the temple, and the Pharisee is like a good man. He's not a womanizer, he's not a crook. Uh he's a he's a uh he's faithful to the to the to the community of faith. He's a good person, he's religious, he's faithful. Um he fasts, he tithes, he fills in the blank, you know. Also, at the same time, a tax collector comes into the temple. This guy is a crook, he's a legal crook. These guys worked for the Romans, they were traitors of their own people, they were mafia-style enforcers. They would go out, they would shake down their own Jewish brothers and sisters for money. They skimmed off the top. These guys were crooks, these are bad dudes. And they both walk into the temple. Now, spoiler alert, one of them leaves the temple after praying as a righteous, justified, pardoned man. Now, to those in the crowd, he's like Jesus basically says, Hey, guess who leaves justified? Now, if you were to guess, who would you guess? You don't have to say out loud, but hang on. The answer is the Pharisee. He does all the right stuff. He's definitely pardoned. He's justified. He did all the things. The other guy's a crook. Who, by the way, goes into the temple and just says so. He says, God have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. He basically announces I'm a sinner, I'm a crook, I'm broken. Who leaves pardoned? Now, if the Torah was a way of earning anything, the Pharisee wins. He wins every time. But what if God was like, hey, that's not what I'm doing here? I'm not doing that. I that's very sweet, Pharisee. I love that you did those wonderful things, those are wonderful things. They are good things. Good for you. The Pharisee lays out all his cards, he shows his portfolio, his his report card, you know, his score sheet. That's very sweet. But God says, hey, I don't count those things. That's not what I'm doing. I'm not in that game. I'm I love it. I'm not I'm not playing that game. That's not what I'm doing here, buddy. You're misrepresenting what I wanted it from the beginning. Meanwhile, the tax collector walks in and says, Hey, uh, I got nothing to show. Have mercy on me. And he leaves justified. He leaves pardoned. Why? Why him? This is crazy. Why would he be why would he? We don't even know if he goes back to collecting taxes. He might go back and keep being a crook. I don't know what he does next. It's like Jesus doesn't really care in the story to announce what happened. I don't know what happens next. Here's why. Because they're playing the wrong well, the Pharisees playing the wrong game. I'm not doing that, God says. You both essentially are dead men. Your only hope is to uh put your faith in a God who can raise the dead. That's it. That's it. I love your your accolades, those are nice trophies that will rot in the garbage one day. They're beautiful, but yeah, that's what I'm counting here. You're both dead. You need a God who can raise the dead. You have bigger problems than just behavior. It's not just a behavior thing. The Pharisee has his trust and his faith where? Not in Jesus, in himself. Luther says that's the problem with the he puts his faith in himself. And guess what? That fuel runs out quickly. Jesus' like, no, no, no, no. Stop playing those games. Here's the invitation, Central. Paul says, Colossians, don't worry about all the other pressures around you. They're misguided. Just follow Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus. Stay the course. Trust in him. If you're here this morning and you're like, I I've never done that before. I've never uh I've never, I don't know what it even means to be a Christian. Being a Christian simply means something like uh beginning to follow Jesus and put your faith and your hope in him and not in yourself, not in the systems of the world, or what kind of car you drive or who you voted for or your name, whatever. It's just Jesus. And then you begin to practice his ways, put his teachings, his Torah into practice. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, put, you know, put these into practice, try these out, and you'll be like a person who builds their house on a rock. Your life will go well. Yeah, that's where have I heard that before? So, and then you gather around other folks who are doing the same thing. Come to church, for example, and we'll talk about it and we'll explore what it means to love God and love our neighbors. And as we do that, the spirit, which is a gift from God, will begin to empower us to do so because on my own, I can't do it on my own. So the spirit will kind of guide me, lead me, and and I live my life with that as my guiding life. That's what it means to be a Christian. So we're gonna sing a song, we're gonna pray, we're gonna invite our good friend Adam up from Timber Bay, who's doing some wonderful things with teenagers in the in the community and is helping people to understand these things. Uh, I want you to pray. And and just however you want to, because also what it means to follow Jesus is like you, you, you have a relationship with him. And it's weird because it's like I can't like see the body, the bodily Jesus, but I but I can pray to him and I can read the scriptures. And these are ways of like connecting or opening my own eyes to God. And so I do that, and like like a real person, I begin to have this relationship with him. So I encourage you, you know, if if you feel a sense of like tugging on your heart, it could be the spirit like wooing you, like inviting you to try this out. And I'd encourage you to do that. So, Central Lutheran Church, may you also resist the temptation to just add Jesus onto all the other gods in your life, you know, gods of youth sports or uh money or fame or whatever your things are. We've all got them. I've got mine. Uh don't do that. Just put Jesus above those things and just watch what happens. It'll everything will fall in the proper order, I promise you. Also, resist the temptation to like just, hey, it's Jesus plus all these laws and rules and things that I gotta like, I gotta earn it. I gotta build, you know. Don't do that. Just Jesus. And this morning may you put your faith and hope and trust in Jesus. Amen.