Colossians 1:12-14
Intro:
Are you a thankful person? – Do you find it easy to think of reasons to rejoice
– Is your heart prone to worship / easy to enter in
A) Many of the men here – Probably a
little more thankful right now for your wife – been away at the retreat – Playing Mr. MOM
B) John Henry Jowett, a British preacher of an
earlier generation, said this about Gratitude
"Gratitude
is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic." What did he mean? He meant
that gratitude, like a vaccine, can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled,
discouraged spirit. Like an antitoxin, gratitude can prevent the affects of the
poisons of cynicism, criticalness, and grumbling. Like an antiseptic, a spirit
of gratitude can soothe and heal the most troubled spirit.
C) It is true that a grateful heart can go a long way
– It can have a huge affect on our outlook on life and our interaction with
others
1) On the tombstone of her husband's grave, a
Southern mountain woman had chiseled in rough and uneven letters this epitaph: "He
always appreciated."
D) What a way to be remembered – He always
appreciated – he was always grateful – always thankful –
1) I bet she loved that man very much!!!!!
E) A life that
is lacking gratitude can have the opposite affect { Listen to Jowett's insights
on this
Life
without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness
is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and
fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along
the spiritual road.
F) Well I hope that you are a person of
Gratitude – that you can easily find reasons to rejoice - In our text today – Paul gives us several
1)
Last time we began looking at Paul Prayer here in Ch. 1 v.9-11 Read
Paul’s prayer for these
people divides nicely into 2 parts –
1st part
v.9-11 is his request for them – we looked at that last time
A) Paul
prayed: that
they would be filled, or totally controlled by the knowledge of God’s will for
their lives, in all wisdom & Spiritual understanding,
B) that they would walk in a manner that was worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing Him in all things,
1) that they would grow in their knowledge of God, AND that
they would be continuously filled with the strength and power of God’s might,
so that they could endure with joy, tough situations and difficult people.
C) that
is a great prayer, that’s a prayer that is
right on target, great way to pray for your husband / wife / roommate / best
friend / kids
This is one of the things I love about Paul’s prayers: They look forward, never backward,
A) His focus was always on what they could become in Christ as opposed to
what they had messed up in the flesh.
B) Paul was way more concerned about their spiritual potential, then
he was about the circumstances of life,
1) or their sin nature that kept dragging them down,
or Satan’s schemes
C) Not that Paul discounted these
things, he didn’t at all, it’s just that when Paul prayed over them,
1) See he
knew that the cure for all of these things was not fixing
or repairing the past,
2) but firmly
grabbing a hold of the future that was theirs in Christ.
D) So Paul began with these request asking
God to grow these people in these particular areas – but Paul didn’t stop there
–
1) after the request he breaks out into
thanksgiving for these people.
E) That is what we want to consider today:
Some reasons to Rejoice that Paul points out here Rd
v.12-14
What we have in this statement is one of the best descriptions of salvation
that you will find in the Bible.
A)Paul is essentially saying,
“this is what salvation is/this is how it
happens
B) He starts with the fact
concerning how God had qualified them to be partakers
of the Kingdom.
1) The word “Qualified” here is a very interesting word, it is only used twice
in the New Testament
C) It is used here and in 2 Cor 3:6
where Paul is talking about us being qualified to minister to those around us
by the Spirit.
D) The Greek word for qualified means - means to authorize, to make sufficient,
to empower.
1) We are familiar with the term
as it relates to be approved for a house or car loan or being approved to play
on the team / approved for a college.
What Paul is saying here
is that God has given His stamp of approval, His authorization, for
the Believer to be in the Kingdom.
A) You have been accepted in the BELOVED –
you are qualified to be a part of the family of GOD !!!!
B) But notice to emphasis here is on this being a work of God, it is God and God
alone who has qualified you for the Kingdom.
C) It is the opposite of being
accepted for the college, or approved for the house loan or car loan /
1) IN
those things the emphasis is on your academic achievements or your Credit &
bill paying History
D) You
are qualified based on your performance over a long period of time but here the
emphasis is on God’s performance – what he did
for you.
1) When you were spiritually
bankrupt / when your moral performance fell way below the grade – God’s
Standard of perfection{ He sent his Son !!!
What this points out to us once again is the difference
between every other religious system and Christianity.
A) Every other religious system tries
to give you the tools, or the path, or the techniques that will enable you to
qualify yourself for the Kingdom.
B) But the bottom line is this, you can’t do it, I don’t care how many doors you knock on / trips to
Mecca you take / hrs of Meditation you do
1)
you are not going to get it done.
C)
The beauty of Christianity is that God says, “what you can’t do
for yourself, I will do for you, I will qualify you for the Kingdom, I will
provide the salvation that is necessary to get you in”
Not only has God qualified us for the
kingdom, but He has also qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in the light.
A) What this
means is that not only is God going to get us to
heaven, but we are going to be fully funded once we get there,
B) We are going
to have all of
the resources that we need to fully enjoy it.
1) God has by grace qualified the unqualified to
share in the inheritance.
C) One of my
favorite place in all the world to go to is the Island of Maui – I love it
there . So peaceful relaxing and beautiful –
1) But a sad fact
is that many of the people who live year round on the Island don’t really enjoy
the blessing of it.
D) The reason is
it is so expensive to live there that many of them live more in a survival mode
than a living mode
1) They work two & sometimes three jobs, & they still can’t afford a house, or to go out to
the good
restaurants, like the tourist get to do.
E) They live there, but they don’t have the resources to really
enjoy it.
1) That will not be the case in
heaven, not only has God authorized your presence there, AND He has placed in your heavenly account,
every resource that you need to fully enjoy it.
Peter refers to it as “an
inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away,
reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet.
1:4).
A) It will be ours forever. Hebrews 9:15 depicts it as
an eternal inheritance.
B) That’s what the future holds for the Believer, - A great reason to REJOICE & have a thankful heart
1) We
have been qualified for the kingdom and the inheritance that goes along with it
!!!!
C) Now A second cause for thanksgiving is our
spiritual liberation. We have been delivered from the DOMAIN
OF DARKNESS
1) The word Delivered is interesting – it means
more than just being rescued it means to “to draw to oneself,”
D) God drew us out of
Satan’s kingdom to Himself.
See Before God saved us by His grace we were truly unqualified for
our
inheritance.
A) Several passages in Ephesians describe our helpless
condition:
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which
you formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among
them we too all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as the rest. (2:1-3)
Remember that you were at
that time separate from Christ,
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world. (2:12)
C) Before our salvation, we were dominated by the evil
world system; its wicked ruler, Satan;
and our own fallen, sinful, human natures.
D) We were Christless,
stateless, covenantless, hopeless, godless. Our minds were given to
futility; our understanding was darkened.
E) We were cut off from the life of God, ignorant,
hardhearted, callous, immoral, impure, and greedy.
1) The only thing we were qualified to receive from God was His wrath.
But he intervened on our behalf – He set in motion a plan to rescue
us not only to set us free from Satan’ Bondage – But draw to Himself
A) In the
movie Shadowlands – CS Lewis – meets a woman by the name of Joy Davidman – Joy’s life was in Shambles
B) She was
married to a womanizing Alcoholic whom she felt compelled to Divorce – She sought refuge in England with her two sons
1) From Her ex - Husband lived back in the states
C) Joy was a brash American with a colorful past- she was of
Jewish decent, but had drifted into atheism & communism
1) But
eventually came to faith in Christ
C) Joy and Lewis struck up a friendship & although
he was attracted to her mind – {they shared a love of Poetry & literature
}
1) he felt no
romantic stirrings toward her
D) Well this was during the cold war in 1956 &
tensions were at their peak
The British Govt revoked
Joy’s resident permit because of her communist background –
1) She reluctantly prepared to head back to America
which meant facing her ex husband and battles about the custody of the boys
That is when Lewis stepped in and proposed that he would
marry Joy
A)It would simply be a marriage of
convenience –so she could stay in Eng
And provide
stability for her sons
B) They would not live together as Husband and wife – it was purely to satisfy the legal issues so she could stay
in England
1) He was seeking to rescue her from the darkness of
her past & an Abusive / alcoholic ex-husband
– But he wasn’t interested in drawing her to
himself
C) That all changed when she contracted terminal
cancer – Lewis did not want her to die alone in a hospital so he decided to take
her into his house and care for her :
D) Two unexpected things took place – Joy’s cancer
went into remission and Lewis fell madly in love with her!!! He wrote this
about her in his auto biography surprised by Joy
Listen we like Joy – had terminal cancer – called sin – We like Joy
had a hurtful past – left us in Bondage/ God rescued us – not just to set us
free
A) But
because he loved us – and wanted us to be close to Him – Wanted us to have a
relationship with Him !!!!
B) We have been taken out of the Domain of darkness
and conveyed or transferred into the Kingdom of light !!!!
1) transferred
means to remove or change. It is used
in Acts 13:22 to speak of God’s removing Saul from being king.
C) It was used in the ancient world to speak of the
displacement of a
conquered people to another land.
1) The verb speaks here of our total removal from the domain of satanic darkness to the
glorious light of the kingdom of Christ.
If you ever want
to get right down the
essence of salvation, here it is, God has rescued us from Powers of Darkness,
and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
A) That’s
salvation, saved from darkness to light.
B) Now What I want you to see here is that this is not something
that will happen, it is something that has happened.
1) The moment a person puts their faith in Jesus, this process occurs,
C) We are rescued, saved, delivered, from the power of
darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of the
Son of His love.
1)
That is the wonderful story of God’s salvation.
How was this all possible, how could God do
this? By two specific things, the redemption through His blood & the forgiveness of sins.
A) Redemption is a New Testament word that you have to
understand, it means “to deliver by payment of a ransom”
B) The word was most often used
in reference to a slave, it was the price that was paid to buy someone out of slavery.
1) The idea being
that we were slaves to our own sin,
that is what was keeping us bound up in the dominion of Darkness.
C)
God was determined to pay the price that would buy us
our freedom, what was the price,
what was the ransom that was due?
1)
Well the wages
of sin is death, someone had to
come and die the death that we deserved.
D) Someone had to come and bare the wrath and penalty that our sin
deserved.
1) That someone was Jesus Christ, the ransom was paid through His Blood on the Cross.
E) Because Jesus paid the ransom that our sin
deserved, He can now offer us full and complete forgiveness for our sins.
The word that Paul uses here for “forgiveness” is a compound Greek Word that means “to send
away”
A) That
is what God is now able to do with our
sins, He is able to separate them from us as far as the East is from the West,
B) He is able to bury them in the deepest sea & to remember
them no more.
1) Church that’s is what God has done with your sins,
they are history, they have been removed, they will never be an issue again.
C) This is why you are qualified for the
Kingdom, this is why you are a partaker of inheritance of the saints in the
light.
1) Because God made a way for you to be
REDEEMED & WITH THAT REDEMPTION – COMES FORGIVENESS -