Alive and Free [Sermon]

Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

September 2026

https://youtu.be/8-1twxNX20c

Colossians 2:6-23

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

1.0 The Bondage - The Human Effort. 

1.1 Enslaved by Humanistic Philosophy – By Culture

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world.

1.2 Judged by Legalism 16-23 – By Humans

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

What is legalism?

Legalism is the reduction of a spiritual or moral system to rigid rules and external compliance, often losing sight of the underlying principles, spirit, or relationship that gives those rules meaning. 

Jesus was judged by legalism.

a. Sabbath violation. Mark 2.

b. not fasting Mark 2.

c. associating with “sinners”  Mark 2.

d. eating with unwashed hands. Mark 7.

e. plucking grain on the sabbath Matt 12.

1.3 Disqualified with Self-Righteousness – By God

18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

2.0 The Freedom - The Divine Intervention

2.1 From Death – Jesus Raised Us To Life

Romans 3:19-20 (ESV): "Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin."

Surah Al-Jumu'ah 62:8

"Say, 'Indeed, the death from which you [try to] run away has to visit you,' and then you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you about what you used to do."

Bhagavad Gita 9:21

"When they have enjoyed the vast pleasures of heaven, the stock of their merits being exhausted, they return to the earthly plane. Thus, those who follow the Vedic rituals, desiring objects of enjoyment, repeatedly come and go in this world." 

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him…

2.2 From Darkness – Jesus Has Overcome All Darkness

10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

2.3 From Debt – Jesus Paid Off Our Debt

13 having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Romans 3:24-25

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.