Okay, Colossians 1, I'll just begin reading in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy. giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.
If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
To this end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. Amen.
Scripture Reading
Well, there's a lot going on, obviously, in this particular chapter.
Introduction
As I mentioned, I want to look specifically at Paul's prayer for the Colossians. Notice in verses 3 to 8, this is Paul's thanksgiving for the Colossians. He says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. And then in verse 9, he gives the specific content of his intercession on behalf of the Colossians.
Intercession simply means going to the throne of grace on behalf of others. Intercession is what, God willing, we attempt to do when we come here to pray. We mention some names, we mention some particular persons or people. We mention the persecuted church and we intercede on their behalf.
Well, the Apostle sets the example on intercession. And there, here specifically, he provides some things that ought to make their way into our own prayer closets and into our own church prayer meetings when we consider brethren, when we consider churches, when we consider various people. Now as I said, we're going to focus primarily on verses 10 to 14, but notice just by way of introduction in verse 9, He commences or He speaks of their commencement of the prayer on their behalf. For this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, heard it, the reality that the saints or that the people of God in Colossae had been walking consistently with the Lord.
Since we heard of your coming to the Lord Jesus, since we heard of your gathering together as a local church, he says, we do not cease to pray for you. The frequency of prayer is marked there. We know of you, we consider you, and as a result, we pray for you. The specific petition is found in verse 9b.
We do not cease to pray for you and to ask, what? that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." And then specifically, that you have this knowledge, that you understand His will, that you have this spiritual understanding, so that, according to verse 10a, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. It's good for us to pray for the temporal needs of our brethren. It's good to pray for the various situations that the saints of Christ find themselves in. We ought to also remember the spiritual element.
Paul says, we pray that you be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And the reason that we pray that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding is so that, verse 10a, you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. That ought to be the desire and the goal of every saint of Christ is that we walk worthy of the Lord and that we are fully pleasing Him. Certainly it is helpful when there are people praying that on our behalf as men we ought to pray for our wives that they be walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.
As ladies who are married to men, pray that God would bless your man in such a way that he would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. These are good petitions to express at the throne of grace on behalf of the people of God. We have a high calling. We are to let our conduct be worthy of the Christian gospel.
As Paul says here, he wants the saints of Christ in Colossae to walk worthy of the Lord, to fully please the Lord. That is a high calling that we have as Christian people. We're not just those who are delivered for our own benefit and so that we can just enjoy the salvation that we have, but rather we've been saved so that we may walk in a manner that is consistent with God's will on this earth and that we may please Him. Remember the Lord Jesus says that when men see your good works, they give glory to God.
That ought to be the desire in our hearts that we live in such a way as to bring honor to the Lord, fully pleasing Him. Now, when we ask the question, what does a life look like that fully pleases God, Paul fleshes that out for us. And this is where we're going to spend the bulk of our time this evening. So he commences prayer.
He prays constantly for them. The petition is that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and that having been filled, that they would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. If we were to say, well, what does it look like to walk worthy of the Lord? What does it look like to fully please God?
Four Marks of a Worthy Walk
Paul fleshes that out by means of four participles. And those follow in the statement after fully pleasing Him. And
First: Fruitfulness in Good Works
the first one is being fruitful in every good work. being fruitful in every good work. If we ask the question, what does it look like to walk worthy of the Lord and to fully please Him, the first answer, at least out of Colossians chapter 1 and verse 10, is that we are fruitful in every good work. Remember that the apostle says in Ephesians 2, in fact, you can turn there. In Ephesians chapter 2, a passage that Calvinists or Reformed people often go to to highlight the reality that faith is a gift given by God, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, we ought not to neglect verses 9 and 10.
We are saved by grace for a specific purpose. And in verses 8 and following, Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. No one can argue with Paul. We're not saved because of our good works.
We're not saved as a result of our good works, but we are saved rather for good works. Notice in verse 10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is why, one of the reasons why God saves us. He creates, or He has created us in Jesus four good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." It's a recent book by Pastor Mark Jones.
He's the pastor at the Faith Presbyterian Church in Vancouver. It's a book called Antinomianism, Reformed Theology's Unwanted Guest. Antinomianism is the view that once we're saved, we have no dealings whatsoever with the law. And along the way in this treatment of antinomianism, Brother Jones deals with the statement, I think it was Luther who said, God doesn't need our good works, your neighbor does.
Now in the context, Luther's right. God doesn't need our good works. Our neighbor needs our good works. But Jones points out, and I think rightly so, how that doesn't do full justice to the doctrine of good works.
God doesn't need our good works. but our good works bring glory and honor and praise to our God. In other words, when we do good works and men see that, what do they then do but give glory unto God? So in one sense, God does need them, and I qualify in a nuanced need there, in the sense that He has predestined, foreordained, created us in Christ Jesus for these good works, which He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, as a means by which He will receive glory and honor and praise and adoration. Good works are crucial in the Christian life.
Again, not so that we'll be saved, but because we've been saved, we've been saved for good works. This would be a contrast to the Colossians former way of life. Notice in Colossians 121, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he is reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. So this characterized, this typified, this identified you prior to your coming to Christ.
You engaged in wicked works, but now that you're in Christ, you have the ability to do good works. Again, I made the citation recently to the Book of Revelation in chapters 2 and 3. The Lord Jesus Christ condemns the bad works of those seven churches in Asia Minor, but he commends the good works. He says, I know your works, I see your works, and he commends them for those particular works.
We need to get this in our minds that as Christians in Christ Jesus, We are capable by the grace of God of doing those things which are pleasing to God and bring glory and honor to Him and an approbation from Him upon His children. What does Jesus say to those men who enter in? He says, well done, good and faithful servant. Now there is a sense ultimately where it's because we're in Christ, but there is that sense where the Lord Jesus Christ commends those works that are done in the body and he condemns those deeds that are done in the body that are evil.
Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3, verse 7, the apostle highlights again what they were prior to their coming to Christ, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Talking about the wickedness of the flesh, specifically carnality, and sexual sin. So when he says that we pray that you would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, the first thing we ought to take notice of is that a worthy walk with the Lord, or a walk worthy of the Lord, that fully pleases the Lord is a life that is fruitful in every good work.
And oftentimes we think that good works are only religious works, don't we? In other words, if I'm engaged in almsgiving or I'm engaged in fasting or something like that. It's an interesting scenario. In the book of Philippians, when the apostle is commending the church in Philippi for the gift that they sent via Epaphroditus, The Apostle says that this was worship.
This was an act of worship. When they sent temporal, tangible goods, probably food and clothing, they put it in Epaphroditus' hands or they put it on his knapsack and they sent him to Rome to visit the Apostle Paul, and they told Epaphroditus, when you get there, give him this stuff. The Apostle says that this is an act of worship. To alleviate the suffering of a brother in Christ who's in a prison cell is an act of worship unto our great and our glorious God.
Colossians chapter 3. 22 and 23, bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. So good works aren't specifically or only those religious activities that you and I engage in, but they're good works. They're things done in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ that help our fellow man.
Calvin says, what is here said to the Colossians, let all believers take as said to themselves and draw from this a common exhortation that we must always make progress in the doctrine of piety until death. They are to be fruitful in every good work. That's what the apostle says, marks a walk that is worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.
Second: Growth in Knowledge of God
Secondly, he says, there is to be growth in the knowledge of God. And as we look at these four things, it's a package deal. It's a combo play. Personally, I like being told to increase in the knowledge of God, because I like to read my Bible, and I like my books.
I mean, we joked about it. I like to go sit in there and just look at them. There's something attractive to me about increasing in the knowledge of God. And I know there's a whole lot of texts in the Bible that say I'm supposed to do that.
But I can't pick and choose what is a walk worthy of the Lord that is fully pleasing Him. I can't say, well, you know, I have a bent toward theology, so I'm going to really focus on that, to the neglect of everything else. No, there must be a fruitfulness in every good work, and then notice, and increasing in the knowledge of God. But it cuts both ways.
You see, there are people out there that look at doing good things and don't spend any time in their Bibles or in good theology. It's a package deal. It's a combo plate. You want to do good works, but you need to be increasing in the knowledge of God.
It's not a pick-and-choose thing. This is not a buffet. The Bible isn't something where I like this, so I'm going to do this. I don't care for that, so I'm not going to do that.
No, if we want a walk that is worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, these four participles come to play. The first, being fruitful. The second, growth in the knowledge of God. Paul started here Verse 9, for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will.
How are we filled with the knowledge of His will? Is it magic? Do we go to bed and say, Lord, fill me with the knowledge of Your will? We certainly pray before we go to bed, but we read the Word.
The knowledge of God's will comes in the pages of Holy Scripture. So he starts there, and now he emphasizes this again. We pray for you, church and Colossae, that you will increase in the knowledge of God, that you'll pay attention to preaching, that you'll read your Bibles, that you'll study John Owen, that you'll look at these sorts of things, and that you'll start to put together the doctrines of the faith. You'll start to track, you'll start to understand, you'll start to see about God and about Christ and about man and about salvation and all these things.
Increasing in the knowledge of God is most helpful for you in your Christian life. When Jesus comes to pray in the High Priestly prayer, for our sanctification. He says, sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth.
You see, we put the emphasis on actions, and actions follow theory. We need to get the doctrine, we need to get the mindset, and then put those things into practice in our Christian living. We are not to be static, we are to be growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting, Paul uses the similar turn of phrase in verse 6.
If you look at verse 6, He says, "...which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God and truth." The Gospel itself is bringing forth fruit. It is increasing. It is going forward. You, as one of the recipients, must likewise increase in knowledge.
You likewise must increase in fruitfulness in terms of your understanding of the truth. In other words, the more we learn, the more we know, the more we understand, the more faithful we ought to be in our practice in terms of Christian living.
Third: Strength for Endurance
So fruitfulness, growth, thirdly, strength for endurance. Notice verse 11, strengthened with all might. In other words, Paul says, we want you to be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, because as a result of that, you will walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. And a characteristic of this is strength.
It is fortitude. It is perseverance. It is endurance. This is what is going to keep you through your Christian life.
Remember, the Christian life isn't just about come to the Lord Jesus Christ and then drop dead. The Christian life is come to the Lord Jesus Christ and then 45 years through wilderness and war if you happen to be Caleb. 80 years through whatever it is that the Lord God has for you. You need strength for the long haul. You need endurance.
And this is what the Apostle prays. We want you to be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy. There is divine provision and resources for our needs in this worthy walk. God supplies what He demands.
God calls us to walk a particular way, but He does not leave us to ourselves. In this act of striving, in this knowledge of His will, in all of these things, the Lord is garrisoning our hearts, He is fortifying our souls, and He is increasing for us this patience and long-suffering. And notice the last two words of verse 11. I don't know how the other translations have it, but I think the New King James is right.
The with joy goes with what precedes. for all patience and long-suffering with joy." Some take the joy going with giving thanks, giving thanks with joy. Now that's certainly a present concept. You don't give thanks without joy. But I think the with joy there goes with the patience and the long-suffering.
In other words, when we are patient and long-suffering and enduring as Christians, we are happy about it. We're not persevering and slugging it out like some prize fighter that's got to get to the 14th round when his face is all bloody and he wouldn't smile if you paid him a million bucks. As Christians persevering in the long haul that is set before us, we are to dispositionally be joy-filled. We are to be a people that manifests the joy of the Lord as our strength.
Patience is resolute endurance under difficult circumstances. The long-suffering is patient endurance that does not retaliate against others. The Apostle knows that in this world you will have tribulation. As a result of that, this walk that is worthy of the Lord, this fully pleasing Him, requires this strengthening with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy." And isn't that a beautiful statement there?
I want you to be strengthened according to His glorious power. It's not a wish. It's not just a dream. It's not just a hope.
It's not just a throw a penny in the fountain and pretend that you're going to get what you ask for. The God to whom the Apostle prays, the God to whom the Apostle intercedes has glorious power and is able to pour that out upon the saints that the Apostle is interceding on behalf of. It's truly a beautiful picture. And then notice, fourthly,
Fourth: Thankfulness to God
Fourthly, this fully pleasing hymn is marked by thankfulness. Notice in verse 12, giving thanks to the Father. A walk worthy of the Lord will be marked by thankfulness to God. Look at verse 3 in Colossians 1.
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see it here in verse 12. Notice in chapter 2, verse 7. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Chapter 3 and verse 15, conduct, corporate conduct that is pleasing to the Lord. 315, let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. Verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Chapter 4, verse 2, continuing earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it, with thanksgiving. You see a theme with the apostle here.
When you go to the throne of grace, you ought to be thankful to the Lord God. So Paul says, when we pray for you, we pray these things. And while we're praying these things for you, we are giving thanks to the Father on your behalf. Thankfulness is constantly necessary in the Christian life, at least for this reason, because thankfulness always recognizes the grace character of God's dealings with us.
Thankfulness evidences the reality that we acknowledge that God has given us things. Right? It's not deserved, it's not earned, it's not merited. If I deserve something, if I earn something, if I merit it, I don't have to say thanks for it.
If I rake the leaves out of your front yard and you hand me a can of pop, I mean, I probably will say thanks, but I don't really have to because I just rake the leaves out of your yard. But if I just happen to be wandering down the street and it's a hot day and you say, here, let me give you this can of pop, thankfulness is a legitimate expression because it's a gracious gift. And when we are thankful to the Lord God, we are constantly recognizing and acknowledging and demonstrating a recognition of the graciousness of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Probably not accidental that the catechism, the Heidelberg, goes from guilt, grace, to gratitude.
That is man's response to what the Lord God has done. The Lord finds us guilty, the Lord graciously saves us, and our response to him is one, marked by thankfulness to the Lord God Most High. Now the apostle, as he is wont to do, is going to transition from this statement of intercessory prayer to the glory of Jesus Christ and his redemptive work. And by way of transition, he masterfully gives us a few things we ought to be thankful for when it comes to expressing this idea of gratitude to our Lord.
This then provides the segue into the next section, where he deals with the redemptive reality of our Lord Jesus Christ. for us. But it's still the context of intercessory prayer. Notice in verse 12,
Qualified for the Saints' Inheritance
giving thanks to the Father, first of all, because the Father has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. You see that in verse 12b. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. How could we not thank God when He's done that?
How could we not praise our Father when He's done that? I mean, look at what the Apostle says. This is one of the interesting things about Paul's prayers. Sometimes I don't think I could even scratch the surface in really knowing what he's talking about, but it's amazing.
The Lord has qualified us, and that by grace, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Turn to Ephesians for just a moment, another place where Paul at prayer says some amazing things. He lets us in to his closet and he lets us hear what he offers up in terms of prayer for the saints in Ephesus. Notice in Ephesians 3.14, for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Now here comes the very specific petitions. It's already said, I bow my knees to the Father. And then verse 16, that. When you're reading your Bible and you see that, more often than not, it's a purpose clause, it's a reason, it's a specific thing that you ought to pay attention to.
This is what Paul is praying. I pray that, first of all, he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. You see the way Paul prays? This is huge language, and this is what I'm saying.
I don't know that I fully understand every jot and tittle of what he's speaking about here, except to say this. Paul knows that God is big. Paul knows that we need help, and so Paul goes to this big God on our behalf. The second petition in verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, I think this is subordinate to that same idea, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height.
Isn't that amazing? To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Paul wants us there not to know how much we love Jesus, but to try and get our minds wrapped around how much Jesus loves us. That's huge.
I mean, that's something we ought to pray for people. People struggling with assurance, I want you to know how much Jesus loves you. I want this person who's struggling, who's got a sensitive conscience, who's having some trials in this area, go to the throne of grace on their behalf and say, Lord, I want them to know the presence of Christ. I want them to be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
And then look at Paul's third petition there, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Huge petitions from the Apostle. Go back to Colossians. This is what I mean.
When we look at these statements, we oftentimes gloss over them. We say, oh, isn't that interesting, the Apostle Paul prays for people. Stop and think about what he's praying for, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us, and that by grace. We're not qualified because we're worthy.
We're not qualified because we're fit. We're not qualified because we did certain things. We're not qualified because we paid the fee. We're qualified by the grace of God to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light.
In other words, those things which are upon the saints and the light, those are our blessings.
Delivered from the Power of Darkness
Secondly, we give thanks to God because he has delivered us from the power of darkness. Notice in verse 13a. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. That is a glorious statement concerning the kindness and the mercy of our God.
We share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. because God has delivered us from the power of darkness. God has, to use Petrine language, called us out of darkness into marvelous light. And as a result of that, we ought to be very thankful. Praise God you're not still bumping around, groping for things in the dark. sinful things and wickedness and rebellion against the Lord.
Rather we ought to praise God and be thankful to the Lord because He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has freed us from what at one time kept us in bondage and kept us in slavery. Remember the Lord Jesus speaks of this in John chapter 8. Whoever commits sin is what?
They're slaves of sin. They are bondservants of sin, things that we love to do according to our Master's will. God has delivered us from the power of darkness.
Transferred into Christ's Kingdom
Notice thirdly, why should we thank God? Because He has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. He's not only delivered us from the power of darkness, he doesn't just sort of leave us there in that limbo state, but now he's conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. He has transferred us into that place.
Edi says, plainly, that kingdom which has Christ for its head and founder, which is partially developed on earth and shall be finally perfected in heaven. We are partakers of this. He already has broken in on the not yet. We are possessors of the kingdom of God Most High.
I love that statement of our Lord Jesus in Luke's Gospel when He says, Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Truly amazing what the Lord God has done with miserable, wretched, hell-deserving sinners. And Paul sees each and every step of the way those things, and he gives thanks to God as a result of that. It really kind of puts me to shame when I say, you know, thank you, Lord, that I managed to drive back and forth today and didn't get whacked by a truck.
Thank you for that lunch that I had today, or thank you. I mean, we ought to be thankful for those things as well. But consider these cosmic realities that the Apostle is trafficking in. Consider that he's giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints, and most of us don't even think this way. let alone pray this way, but this is what we're benefactors of.
He says he has delivered us from the power of darkness. That would be, you know, we could probably spend hours in prayer for that. I don't know about hours, we're not, you know, some of these holy brethren, but we could at least spend some time, thank you God that I'm not what I was. I love that statement of Newton.
You know, I know I'm not what I ought to be, but I know that I'm not what I once was. And I know that I'm going to be something else in the future, something to that effect. I'm not what I ought to be, but I'm not what I once was, and I know I'm not what I'm going to be. We ought to praise God for His grace, and that's what the Apostle does.
Murray Harris says, the imagery of verses 12 and 13 suggests that believers have been rescued from the gloomy domain and tyrannical rule of Satan by being transplanted as free colonists into the kingdom and peaceable sovereignty of Christ to become citizens in the realm of light. That's an apt description there of verses 12 and 13 in terms of what God the Lord has done on our behalf.
Redeemed Through His Blood
And then the fourth thing the apostle mentions in terms of thankfulness to God, verse 14, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now generally on the first and the third Wednesdays of the month I go to the Cascade, and today I went and I shared with them Revelation 12. I think they thought that was a bit of an interesting place to turn to in terms of sort of an incarnational theme message. But when I pointed out verse 11, if you remember the exposition from the other day, and right around 4 and 5 there the Apostle John says how Satan was poised to capture the son and devour the male child as soon as he was born.
The son is born, he's ruling the nations with a rod of iron, and then he's caught up to the throne of God. There's that sort of telescopic life of Jesus. It goes from incarnation to ascension. But I mentioned to them, the cross is not bypassed.
John's going to deal with the cross. We drop down to verse 10 where that declaration is made concerning the kingdom, the power, the sovereignty, the strength of our Lord, the dominion of Christ is established. And then verse 11 highlights that they overcame Him because of the blood of the Lamb. And dear old Dahl said, Amen.
I love it when these dear old dolls rejoice over the blood, because that tells me they understand something of their own sin and their own need for redemption. You look at a 95-year-old blue-haired woman and you think, what sin does she have? She's got 95 years of it, and it's refreshing to see them understand that and rejoice in the Savior that you and I rejoice in. And so this is what the Apostle says in verse 14.
I understand there's a variant there. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. For the Apostle, this is a reason to give thanks to the Lord our God. We have redemption through Christ.
The idea of redemption is very simple. it presupposes bondage. We are in bondage to that which is sinful. We are in bondage to the devil. We are in bondage to our own flesh and lusts and wickedness and evil and everything vile and bad.
And so when we are redeemed, we are bought out. It is payment with a price. Remember the idea of redemption isn't just an exercise of power. God doesn't just redeem us.
Not that that would be bad. But what is intrinsic to the word redemption in the New Testament is a purchase price. And that's what's spelled out in the remainder of verse 14. In whom we have redemption.
How? What was the price? What was paid? What was proffered?
Through His blood. It was nothing less than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that brought us redemption. That brought us the forgiveness of sins. This is all the more amazing because of what Paul now does concerning this one who has shed his blood on our behalf.
The Glory of the Redeemer
He speaks of Christ in verses 15 to 20 in three powerful ways. He speaks of him as creator, as sustainer, and as redeemer. And probably the idea here is that he was active in the creation of all things. But he's active in the creation that is the new creation.
This is what Paul speaks of when he says he is the head of the body, verse 18, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. So this one who shed his blood for us is one who is glorious. The language of 15 to 20 spells out in very vivid detail just who this Christ is, just what this Redeemer was on our behalf. Verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God. the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him." Isn't that amazing? We have redemption through His blood? We have redemption through this one?
And don't forget the connection. Verses 12 to 14 transition, leading us to this statement of the glory of Christ in verses 15 to 20. But don't forget what that's connected to, to the tangible activities of our God bringing us out of darkness, making us partakers of this inheritance, conveying us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, the one in whom we have redemption, through his blood the forgiveness of sins. Now Paul tells us what this one looks like in verses 15 to 20.
So he speaks of Jesus as Creator in verses 15 and 16. Notice Jesus the sustainer, sovereign in providence in verse 17. And He is before all things and in Him all things consist. There was no Christ.
Not that we can even talk that way. There'd be nothing. In Him all things consist. He is the cosmic glue that sustains everything.
In Hebrews chapter 1, which is parallel, and in John chapter 1, which is parallel, we see that He upholds all things by the word of His power. And it's through His blood that we have redemption. Verse 18, and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. We might as well keep going here.
Notice, for it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. Now, in 2.9, he is speaking of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Jesus bodily. In other words, when you saw, when you see Jesus, all the fullness of deity dwells in Him bodily. Is that what Paul means in verse 19?
It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. Certainly that could be involved. Some commentators take it, though, all the fullness, in terms of everything that a sinner needs, dwells in Him. In other words, every spiritual blessing is connected to and is found in and through Him.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness, all mediatorial blessings should dwell, and by Him, Christ, to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross." So you see he's back to or he connects with what he says in verse 14, in whom we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and oh, by the way, this is who He is. He created all things, He sustains all things, and He has recreated. He is the Lord of the new creation, which is the church. And He has reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
One of my favorite Gordon Clark quotes is on this verse. He says, When we pause to consider, this is staggering. The preceding verses, he's talking about verse 20, having made peace through the blood of his cross. When we pause to consider, this is staggering.
The preceding verses have described Christ in transcendent terms. Transcendent means he's removed, he creates, in him all things consist. He goes on to say, he was the creator in whom all the fullness dwells, the heir of the universe for whom it was created. Now, when the creator of heaven and earth, the creator himself, voluntarily suffered on the cross for our sins, he says, we can only stand in awe and worship.
There should be no hate for Gordon Clark. The brother got it absolutely right. on that verse. So brethren,
Application
going back, Paul's prayer is that the saints in Colossae and by extension is His sentiment applies to us, saints in Chilliwack, the Free Grace Baptist Church, that we be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that we may walk worthy of the Lord, so that we may be fully pleasing to Him, so that we will be fruitful in every good work. We won't just talk the talk, but we'll actually walk the walk. We'll not just have it in our heart, but it will flesh itself out through our hand, through our mouths. We will be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
There should be growth, there should be understanding, there should be maturation in the Christian faith. that we should be strengthened with all might. That ought to be the goal and the hope and the intention for all of us is that we would be strong believers running the race with endurance that the Lord God has set before us so that we may be a means of encouragement to others. Oftentimes in the Christian race there will be those who perhaps aren't as strong, those who perhaps aren't as mighty, and they need brethren to come alongside of them at times and to help them along. I've been greatly encouraged at times when I've been down, when a brother has called or texted or emailed and said, hey, I'm praying for you.
I look at that as a brother coming alongside, help picking me up, and dragging me a few more steps. This is something I learned in the military. They taught you teamwork. If somebody lagged behind, the whole flight got in trouble.
And you could either get mad at the guy, or you could help the guy to fall into step and carry him if you had to, so that the flight as a whole can make it to where they're going. That's how I see the church. We're not supposed to just look at people who fall by the wayside, but pick them up and help take them to the finish line. As we are strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy, And then verse 12 and following, we ought to be a very thankful people for redemptive blessing, for redemptive privilege, for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
If you ever meet a Christian who says, I don't really know what to thank God for, tell him to go to Colossians 1. I mean, you may not have all the worldly goods, you may not have all the earthly possessions, you may not have what some other people have, but if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a rich man or a rich woman, and you ought to be giving thanks to the Father who has given us these things through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption, even through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for the prayers of the Apostle Paul and the various spiritual lessons that they teach us. We pray that You would help us, God, to take these things seriously. Help us, God, to put them into practice. Help us to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing You. being fruitful in every good work, increasing in knowledge, being strengthened, and giving thanks to you, Lord God Almighty.
Help us to put off sin, to put off that laziness, to put off those things which would affect us in a bad way, and give us grace to run with endurance the race set before us. Go with us now. Bring us together again on the Lord's Day. Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth.
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.