Colossians 1:12-14
Thank God
I. \\#1:1-2:23\\ Christ Exalted Through His Person and His Work
A. \\#1:1-12\\ Introduction
1. \\#1-2\\ Paul’s Salutation
2. \\#1:3-8\\ Paul’s Recognition
3. \\#1:9-11\\ Paul’s Prayer
B. \\#1:12-2:3\\ The Person of Christ
1. \\#1:12-14\\ Paul’s Thanks
2. \\#1:15-22\\ Paul’s Message
3. \\#1:23\\ Paul’s Challenge
4. \\1:24-2:3\\ Paul’s Ministry
C. \\#2:4-23\\ Warnings to the Church
1. \\#2:4-7\\ Don’t Be Beguiled
2. \\#2:8-15\\ Don’t Be (Spoiled) Ruined
3. \\#2:16-17\\ Don’t Be (Judged) Condemned
4. \\#2:18\\ Don’t Lose Your Reward
5. \\#2:19-23\\ Don’t Lose Your Christ
D. \\#2:10-23\\ The Solution is to Remember
1. \\#2:9-10\\ Who Christ is.
2. \\#2:11-15\\ What Christ has done.
3. \\#2:16-23\\ What we should do.
II. \\#3:1-4:18\\ Christ Exalted Through His People
I. \\#1:12-2:3\\ The Person of Christ - The last section recorded Paul’s prayer
for the Colossians; but in that prayer, Paul begins to mention the Lord and
what He has done for us all \\#10\\. That leads to Paul praising the Lord
for some of the things He has done. Let’s see what those praises consist of.
A. \\#1:12-14\\ Paul’s Thanks (for what Jesus has done for us!)
1. \\#12\\ Jesus has made us meet to receive salvation.
a. Notice first what Jesus has done for us.
(1) He has made us "meet" for salvation.
(a) The word "meet" means able, sufficient, fit.
(b) Hence, and we must understand this with the greatest of
humility, God has made us sufficient or fit for salvation.
(2) One might say that God has made us "worthy" of salvation.
(a) This fitting has nothing to do with our inherit
worthiness.
(b) It has to do with what Christ does for us in the
salvation process.
(3) We understand that the recreation work of Christ has some
effect in our earthly lives; but here we learn that it also
changes the way God views us.
(a) Notice a commonly quoted Bible verse.
2Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new.
(b) Notice the phrase "become new."
i. It is passive.
ii. That indicates that the work was not done BY us but
TO us.
(c) Exactly HOW or WHAT Christ does to do that makes us fit
for salvation is unclear.
i. In the salvation process, we start as the most
unworthy.
aa. That means this is clearly a POST-salvation
event.
bb. Each of us starts as the chief of sinners and
such an attitude is seemingly mandatory for
salvation to take hold.
ii. But during that process, we are forgiven, born-
again, resurrected, adopted, and granted the rights
of sonship.
iii. In the re-creating process, we cease to be the
wretched sinner—at least in God’s eyes, and become
"fit" to be a partaker of God’s inheritance.
(4) Paul is saying that Jesus is worthy to be praised and thanked
for the change that He had made in us through salvation!
b. Then notice how Paul refers to our salvation and to us.
(1) Paul refers to us as "partakers of the inheritance."
(a) The word for "inheritance" is "part" or "lot."
(b) It is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word "lot" in
the Old Testament.
i. You might remember that the Old Testament saints
drew lots to find out what their portion of the
Promised Land would be.
ii. By doing so, each person received their portion as
God directed the lot.
iii You and I have a portion of God’s eternal things.
(c) God has selected some portion of His business and
riches for each person who is His.
(d) Here our Lord refers to the saved as those who have a
part in His inheritance.
(2) He also calls us "saints in light."
(a) A "saint" is not a dead Christian whom the Pope has
bestowed some honor upon.
(b) A saint is any and every person who has called upon Jesus
Christ to be their Savior.
(c) A "saint in light" should also be a term that adequately
describes each and every Christian.
i. It is interesting that God calls us "saints in
light."
ii. He could have just called us saints and been done
with it.
iii. By adding that extra inscription, we are left to
wonder if this part of the title is honorary or
earned.
iv. That is, does God consider all of His saints to be
in light or do they actually have to be in the
light to be included here?
v. We remember that grace produces our salvation but
works produce our reward.
vi. We both know of some who claim to be saints but do
not walk in light.
vii. Perhaps it is the degree to which we walk in the
light that will determine the lot which God has
planned for us.
(3) Regardless as to how this title is to be considered, Jesus is
worthy of thanks for saving us and even giving us the
opportunity to have a portion in His things.
2. \\#13\\ Jesus has changed our home kingdom.
a. He took us out of the kingdom of darkness.
(1) The Bible makes it clear that all humans are born into Satan’s
domain.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he
is a liar, and the father of it.
1Jo 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil.
(2) What a miserable kingdom this is!
(a) The Bible calls us a kingdom of DARKNESS.
i. Darkness implies it is the kingdom of SIN.
ii. Darkness implies it is the kingdom of HOPELESSNESS.
iii. Darkness implies it is the kingdom of JOYLESSNESS.
(b) Not meaning to sound condescending, but what did we ever
see in that kingdom anyway?
i. Is it not amazing just how near-sighted the human
race is?
ii. We fall all over that short pleasure-of-sin-for-a-
season!
(3) Being in Satan’s kingdom means three things.
(a) He has authority over us.
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father….
(b) He has kinship with us.
i. Notice that Jesus describes those in Satan’s kingdom
as having a father-son relationship.
ii. By that Jesus means we have the same NATURE.
iii. That might the worst thing you can about a human
being.
(c) He has ownership of us.
i. By ownership, I mean that there is nothing we can
do about this condition at all!
aa. We cannot work ourselves out of Satan’s
kingdom.
bb. We cannot purchase ourselves out.
ii. Even a slave could work, purchase, or be sold
to another, but not a human being bond by sin!
iii. A sinner is born in the kingdom of darkness and
will die there!
(4) What we could not do, Jesus did!
(a) Jesus took us out of that kingdom.
(b) For that, our Lord deserves thanksgiving and praise!
b. He put us into the kingdom of His Son.
(1) God was not content to just take us out of the kingdom of
darkness.
(a) Some things bother the human ego, but they need to know
the truth none-the-less.
(b) The truth is that God did not make to exist as a
completely free entity.
(c) Man was designed to be IN someone’s kingdom.
(d) Man needs the leadership of a dominating power to guide
and protect him.
(e) If you have any doubt, just ask yourself how well you do
whenever you try to do things on your own.
(2) So God moved (TRANSFERRED) us out of the kingdom of darkness
and put us back where we belonged—in the kingdom of the Son.
(3) If we understand that fact, we will understand that our
overall condition stayed the same!
(a) We are still under ANOTHER’S authority.
i. We are under Jesus’ authority.
ii. It is His kingdom, meaning He is the King of it.
iii. Those in a kingdom are under the authority of the
king.
(b) We are still KIN to another.
i. We were created in the image of God but sinned it
away; thus becoming more like the tempter in nature
than the Creator.
ii. In saving us, God has reformulated our very nature
so that we are again in His image and likeness.
(c) We are still OWNED by another.
i. Just like it was not within our power to buy, to
work, or to steal ourselves out of the kingdom of
darkness, so we cannot buy, work, or steal
ourselves away from the Son.
ii. This is another reason why we are eternally God’s.
iii. The only way we can lose our salvation is for the
Son to sell or give us away. (Or more likely,
throw us away.)
iv. However, He had promised that He will never do that.
(4) This is the kingdom for which God created us to belong.
(a) This is the kingdom that we were originally in.
(b) Being there this time is all the more sweeter because we
have now tasted the bitterness of the alternatives.
c. How we ought to thank and praise our God for this!
3. \\#14\\ Jesus has given us redemption.
a. We understand that redemption means "to be bought back."
(1) This term deals with what Jesus did to accomplish these things
in us.
(2) We must be careful to understand that God did not do any of
these things for us without paying a price.
(a) Sin cannot just be erased or disposed of.
(b) It must be paid for.
(c) And wickedness such as ours comes with a high price.
b. Consider the price of sin.
(1) It was the ultimate price.
(a) Death.
(b) That is the price of all prices. When one dies for
something, they can do no more.
(2) It was the impossible price.
(a) Even if we pay the price for our own sins by dying, we
aren’t able to clear the books.
(b) It takes a forever death to pay for sin; meaning that if
we go to hell for these sins, we must be there forever.
(3) It was an nontransferable price.
(a) And if we paid the price for our sins, the only one who
would be impacted by our payment would be us.
(b) We could not pay for the sins of another.
c. The text tells us two important things about redemption.
(1) Redemption comes by the blood of Jesus.
(a) You and I are so familiar with the old, old story,
perhaps it has lost its significance.
i. The wages of sin is death.
ii. Jesus left heaven’s portals to pay for our sins.
iii. That payment was personal and painful.
aa. It was the cruelest death - the cross.
bb. It was the accompanied by beatings, scourging,
shame, and mockery.
(b) When it was finished, the pained, shed blood of our
Savior was collected and poured on a heavenly altar as
the payment for our sins.
(2) Redemption is the forgiveness of sins.
(a) It is this act of payment that produces the forgiveness
of our sins.
(b) Forgiveness means deliverance, pardon, removal.
d. It is the old, old story; but it is a story that should be more
blessed to us each time we tell it!
e. Paul thanks God for including himself and the Colossians in the
act of redemption.
(1) I am not a predestinationist.
(2) I do believe that man has a choice to make in the pardoning
of his soul.
(3) However, we might need to be reminded that making that choice
in no way adds to what Christ has done!
(4) The glory, the honor, the praise, and the thanksgiving all go
to God!
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