A Prayer for the Church (Part 2) 11/02/08
Sermon Series: Colossians – All About Christ
Text: Colossians 1:12-14
Title: A Prayer for the Church – Part 2
Theme: This message is a continuation from last week’s sermon where due to time consideration we were not able to complete the text from Colossians 1. This message will focus specifically on the three areas of thanksgiving which Paul tells us to focus on in our prayers: qualification, inheritance, deliverance, transference and redemption.
Introduction: An anti-tonal reading of Psalm 136:1-5, 23-26
Transition: One of the things that I want you to notice is that Paul switches from second person you to first person we and us so that in this part of the prayer Paul is no longer praying and praising God just for the Colossian Christians but for all believers himself included. There are five interconnected blessings which Paul focuses on as the result of God’s work in the believer’s life. They are qualification, inheritance, deliverance, transference and redemption.
I. Prayers of Praise.
a. Thanksgiving that God has qualified them
i. This word is only used twice in all of scripture and it means that God by His own power has reached down and fully made us adequate, or fit as it is expressed in some of the old translations, to receive the incredible gift of grace which He has built for all people.
ii. This blessing speaks of the fact that our position, our standing in the presence of God is only available to us because he has made us fit to be here.
iii. We live in a time and place where people many times believe that we are entitled to a lot of stuff just because we take up space and share the air with the rest of the humans on the planet. That somehow our very existence qualifies us for special recognition. In today’s politically packed climate this attitude is quite prevalent and reinforced by the messages that we get from all of the pundits. We are told that we deserve quality health care, that we deserve a good wage and so goes the endless list telling us that they will deliver all of the things that we deserve because we happened to be born citizens of the United States. I hate to disinflate that theory but the truth is that our existence does not automatically mean that we deserve all of the quality things which life might hold for us.
iv. The same is true of our salvation a lot of people kind of get the idea that God is a loving God, which He is, but to them that means He would never allow anyone to go to hell. The truth is God does desire a relationship with each one of us, He desires it so much that He went to incredible expense to provide it but we don’t deserve it instead God has decided to make us worth what He offers, He qualifies us.
b. Inheritance of the saints
i. The second blessing spoken of here is the incredible rich inheritance which God provides for us as adopted children.
ii. Have you ever thought about what you have inherited from your parents and grandparents? We get all kinds of things like physical attributes: the way our noses and ears look; personality bents we act certain ways because we inherited a bent toward that from earlier generations. Sometimes we inherit things like property or assets or maybe debts. A large part of our lives are made up of the things that earlier generations have already shared in.
iii. The language here harkens back to the time when the Promised Land was doled out to the tribes, clans and families. Each family was given a special inheritance by God that was so specially designated to them that it would continue to remain in their family’s birthright. This inheritance was so important that it should not really even be sold. If the owner of the ground did sell it to another person on the year of Jubilee, which happened every fifty years the land would be restored to its rightful inheritance.
iv. This passage tells us that God has given our inheritance that kind of consideration. He has set aside a non-revocable place in His kingdom of light, the eternal Promised Land. While we can decide not to enter on our own accord it does not take away from the fact that God has still earmarked and set aside an inheritance for us. In the landscape of heaven territory is provided for each of us if we decide to take God up on the offer.
c. Deliverance from the domain of darkness.
i. The next object of blessing which Paul thanks God for is our deliverance.
ii. Being delivered from darkness into light reminds me of a couple of things.
1. Firstly I am reminded of Ephesians 2 where we are informed that in our pre-salvation state we are dead following the course of the world and the prince of the power of the air. I think that it is a very accurate picture to demonstrate that before we are in relationship with God the Father through the Son we are not even aware of the fact that we are serving a lord of darkness in complete oblivion.
2. This makes me think of the description that C.S. Lewis gave to that magical kingdom that Lucy stumbled into when she tried to hide in the wardrobe. Do you remember the description of the condition which Narnia had been facing for years and years without the presence of Aslan? It was always winter and never Christmas.
d. Transference
i. Not only is it necessary for us to be rescued from the darkness that made up our existence before Christ we also need to be transferred into the domain of light.
ii. This means that we begin living differently than before. Our world is no longer about us, it is about the incredible majesty of God and His existence which so outweighs our own that we should scarcely be able to recognize the smallness of the live that we lived before we came to the grace of God in a personal way.
iii. This transference is made possible through the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we open up our lives to the effect of God in us our lives become the things that He wishes us to be.
iv. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NASB95) “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
e. Redemption
i. Finally we are thankful that God has furnished us with redemption which is the forgiveness of sins. I think in order to really understand what it means that we have redemption we first have to understand that it is an ownership issue. The only way that we could experience the redemption which God has for us is to realize that He paid for us. Redemption only makes sense within the context of value and ownership.
ii. Let me share a few scriptures with you.
iii. (1 Corinthians 6:20, NASB95) “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
iv. (Galatians 3:13, ESV) “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—”
v. (Galatians 4:4-6, ESV) “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””
vi. God is in the business of redemption - Scripture shows that He has redeemed His people from:
1. Evil
2. Egyptian bondage
3. From distress
4. From famine
5. From death
6. From our sins
7. And from Sheol
vii. He redeems us in:
1. Power
2. Loving-kindness
3. With Justice
4. And with Christ’s own blood.
