Colossians 2023

A reading from colossians 1 1 to 14. Paul, and the apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of god and Timothy, our brother. To god's holy people in Colosai, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from god, our father. We always thank god, the father of our lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout whole world just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood god's grace. You learned it from epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of god of Christ on our behalf and who has also told us of your love in the spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask god to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives so that you may live a life worthy of the lord and please him in every way bearing fruit in every work. Growing in the knowledge of god, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.

And giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of lights. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the elders of the church here.

We've been going through we started a couple of weeks ago. This series in, colossians, this little letter that Paul, the apostle Paul wrote to the colossian church, and is in the bible and is for us to hear and and, listen to. Let me just pray. Father we thank you for these words. Help us now, please to hear them in our hearts.

Be kind, please, lord, you are such a gracious god. Open our ears that we may be doers of your word. And bring glory to your name in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I don't know, whether you've ever been in complete darkness.

I mean, really complete darkness. I'm sure that you have felt frightened when darkness is is around you, or you're even frightened when it starts getting dark and you realize you haven't got any lights or, and you think gosh, it's gonna be dark soon. I I I'm in trouble. I was once invited to go down a coal mine and did go down in, Rotham, when it was open. And, it was quite an experience that I remember very clearly.

It got in some kind of cage lift We went down 3000 feet, then we came out of the cage and got into a train as far as I remember, we traveled 5 miles in under the ground. Then when we stopped, we had to walk and then we got on our hands and knees, and then we got on our stomachs to go right up to, the cold face. It was very frightening, especially when they turned all the lights out. They thought that was funny. All the lights out.

And I I can tell you that darkness was so frightening. And this sounds strange. It was so frightening. I sort of closed my eyes. Because I'm used to darkness with my eyes closed but not with it and I'm open.

It was frightening. It was it was physical, it felt, all around you that you were in this in this darkness. Darkness is frightening, and it disorientates you. After a few minutes, you're not quite sure which way you're facing, even though you're on your stomach, you're confused about what's going on. Complete darkness is horrible, and darkness doesn't seem to be a natural habitat for us human beings.

We don't really live and thrive there, unless we're asleep, that's a different thing. But, you know, our vision goes at low light We stop seeing colors, we start seeing black and white, and then everything sort of turns to gray, we're we're not, you know, we lose our orientation, particularly with colour children are always frightened of the dark, aren't they? They always want a light on or the door open or some kind of light coming in. And then we use darkness as sort of a metaphor in in all kinds of areas. You know, if you don't know something, you say, no, I'm in the dark about that.

You can use that. I don't know about that. I'm in the dark about that. Or we use darkness as depression or unhappy days. There were dark days I went through, or I'm going through dark days.

Brian Kean, was a Beirut hostage back in the eighties, and he writes in his biography about how darkness was used as a torture for him. He was in prison for 4 and a half years between 19 86 and and 19 90, and they kept him in a very small room. He says his in his autobiography, and they blindfolded him, and they wanted him blindfolded all the time. And then he said sometimes when they blindfolded him, they would then stand in the room very quietly to see if he took the blindfold off. And if he took the blindfold off, they would beat him.

And they used that that darkness a torture and he goes into descriptions about that. And that's my first point here. The power of darkness, look at verse 13, we're really just looking at these couple of verses at the end of colossians 1. Colossians 1 verse 13, and Paul the writer He talks about the dominion of darkness. You see it there?

The dominion of darkness. The word dominion means power. It's it's it's it's rule. The power the rule, the powerful rule of darkness, the control of darkness. He's talking about the powerful rule of That's a strange phrase, isn't it?

When you think about it. We we sort of know the power of light. But the power of darkness. So it's a very odd phrase. I mean light enables us to see brings warmth, brings life.

What's this power of darkness? Well, it seems not to be for good. Does darkness have power? Yeah, but it seems to have power to bring blindness and coldness and death. And disorientation and a lack of color.

Jesus says in John's gospel about himself, he says, These are staggering words of Jesus. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Amazing sentence, isn't it? For anyone to make?

I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but we'll have the light of life. Without the light without Jesus, he's saying, you will walk in darkness. But if you follow me, you won't. It's a staggering sentence to make. Is he true about that or not?

Well, you need to look into that perhaps. And of course then when you read through the Bible, you see that Satan, the evil 1, the devil, is associated with darkness and the power of darkness comes through an evil 1 who is opposite to Jesus. He loves darkness. He dwells in darkness. Hell is described as a dark place.

Jesus himself says that hell is is outer darkness. He describes hell as outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's an awful place. He says. There's no sun, there's no moon there.

There's only disorientation and no color and the sense of the thickness of darkness. That's what he's saying. So is the power in darkness? Yeah. There's power in darkness.

Look at verse 12 and verse 13 of of colossians chapter 1. So in verse 12, Paul talks about sharing notice it in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. He's still saying we're we're sharing in the inheritance of his holy people, in the kingdom of light. And then verse 13, it talks about being rescued from the dominion, the power of darkness. Now behind those 2 phrases, inheritance and rescue or rescue in inheritance, is the whole story in the old testament of god's people being miraculously brought out of Egypt.

Egypt is the place where god's people were. They were in slavery. They were in darkness. And god miraculously or through a load of miracles brought them out of slavery and then eventually into the land of inheritance, the promised land. The land that he'd divided up for the tribes.

He had actually he had actually sorted out a land of inheritance for them. So when Paul uses those words, that's what's behind this. So when we're talking about the power of darkness, we we can put in not just physical darkness, but actually being trapped and enslaved by things that stop you, and this was what pharaoh was doing in Egypt, stop you worshiping god. Pharaoh wouldn't let the god's people go, you know, the story, at least maybe know, where Moses says, let my people go, and pharaoh says, no, it's a fan tastic song on that. Go down Moses.

You know, I won't I won't sing it because it, you know, I want to now and I'm trying to stop myself but go down Moses. Tell old pharaoh, let my people go, and he says, no, no, no. And part of letting the people go was that they could go and worship god properly. And so pharaoh in his slavery was stopping people worshiping god, and that is seen as darkness here. Part of the dominion of this is to stop you worshiping god.

That's what's going on here. We were made to worship god but now we're unable to. So there's the power of darkness. It's very powerful. Now I know what happens here is because we sort of say, well, hold it.

Do we need rescuing from darkness? Look, the sun's out. It's a lovely day. I mean, it's October and what a beautiful day it is. Do we need rescuing from darkness?

But just apply it a bit. Just think about what goes on. I mean, there's a curious lack of freedom if we're we're putting freedom and darkness together in our inner being, isn't there? Don't we sometimes have to admit? Maybe more than sometimes.

I don't know what made me do it. And we wish we hadn't, but we sort of do it again and again. It's like we're in slavery, isn't it? We know it's a dark thing to do, but we do it. And sometimes it feels like the good that we want to do is chained and the bad that we don't want to do is a cruel master over us.

You can go right back to, Seneca, a stoic philosopher, right back. He says this. I am in the grip of habits that fatter me. That's chain me. I cannot escape from the pits into which I have fallen unless an arm from above should rescue me.

He feels that he's got habits You know, this is seneca. Another poet said, I see the better course. I approve it and follow the worst. Isn't that true? Isn't that true of us?

Not not perhaps every day. Perhaps at this moment, you're doing very well. But isn't it true? You know, we're proud of our freedom. We're proud of the light that we have, but we're defeated every day.

We seem to walk in darkness. 1 person's a slave to snobbery or racism another a slave to lust in the dark looking at things, another a slave to the anger that comes upon him This temper, another a slave to the how self satisfied they are, but they're blind to their own failures, even though everybody else can see them. We're not really that free. And the tragedy is that often we're slaves to the very things, to the very forces that we detest in others. We see the darkness in others quite clearly sometimes.

The wrong actions, the wrong words, wrong thoughts, the petty jealousies, the pride, the greed, the desire for money, our looks are success. They they, that We see all of those failures in other people. We could see the darkness there, but sometimes we're just as big a slave to it. Is that true? Is is is that not true?

We're not living in darkness. We're not in the grip of some force that's pulling us into bad habits and bad ways, then explain your actions. Explain your heart. Explain your guilt. Explain your fear.

Explain your conscience. It's interesting. I I saw a film last night. Very very old film, it's on Iplayer. It's about Nuremberg trials Nuremberg trials were the trials of, Nazis after the second world war, in Neuremberg in Germany.

And, but it's not, it wasn't about the main, Nazi leaders, which most of the Nuremberg trials sort of go on about. It was about a secondary layer which was the judges. And there are 4 or 5 judges, Nazi judges that were on aisle, and it was a really, really good old film. I mean, really good film. It's called something like the judgment of Neuremberg Judges or something like and, if you've got Spencer Tracy and if you're looking it up, he was magnificent.

I mean, really magnificent. But he was the judge but what was interesting in that and what really struck me and I always know whether a film's good in my in my uh-uh in my sort of definition of what a good film is. If when I get up at night to go to the toilet, I'm thinking about the film. That's a good film. Yeah?

And I was thinking about it when when I go several times to the toilet. I was thinking about it several times in the night. It's it was just interesting. Who's guilty? Who was guilty of the atrocities of the Nazis?

It was really good stuff, and that's the question And the bloke who was defending these people was going on about, hold it. Let me quote Churchill to you. Let me quote the American president that said this. Let me quote what Europe said how good Hitler was and that we need a Hitler in our country to sort our country out. Let me quote all of these people.

Who's guilty? Of allowing him to do these things. It was a very good question. But 1 of the judges there, was a very famous judge, and this is these are true stories, he wanted to be a good judge. He was known as the great judge in in Germany.

I've forgotten his name now, but what happened to his story was he allowed himself to put a non guilty person in the name of the Nazis to death. 1 person. Just 1 person to death. And he thought by allowing that Germany would sort itself out and we'd come back to proper justice. Just 1 person, and the judge in the end said to him, because he says, I didn't mean for all these people to die, and the judge says, at the moment, you convicted that guiltless man is guilty.

You were responsible for this. Boy, And then if you think about it, because of the way the Jews were treated, they come into Jerusalem, Israel. And because of the Jews, the way the Jews were treated so badly, then they they they make their land. And then they start to treat their enemy really badly. And now we've got a war in Israel.

Today. 1 speck, 1 false judgment in the end leads. See, think about your life. The untruths, the little seeds of darkness that you've sown. Now wonder Jesus is holding back just to see how dark that will grow, before he judges you.

Can we A core of darkness in it, everyone from the police to the fire brigade. From entertainers to the surgeons that they're just so full. Are you are you got used to hearing of the corruption that's going on there? Sexual abuse in a surgery. In the police.

So much so people are calling for the Met Police to stop the we don't want them anymore. Are we saying we're not in darkness, sozhen Itson said this. For, forces of evil have begun They're decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure. Yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses.

What is the joy all about? See, some people don't even know what's going on in our world because we're watching someone dance on TikTok and not realizing there's a war now. Not only in Europe, 2 wars, but now in Israel. Darkness in the streets, darkness in the government, people imprisoned by their lust and greed and trapped in an endless round of entertainment searching for joy. Darkness in the depths of our hearts and our souls, darkness that will be produced by our single actions of unjust dis and unkindness and rudeness, darkness in our consciences, disorientation of who we are and what we are.

Darkness around us and not to mention the darkness of death that is coming and the darkness of eternity without the light of Christ. Power of darkness. That's what Paul is talking about. It's powerful darkness, isn't it? But if we ended there, gosh, That would be something, but we don't end there.

There's a power of redemption. The power of redemption, which is light, it's like turn the light on. So now it's at this point when you understand how dark the world is that the Christian gospel is supremely relevant When people say it's not relevant, it's supremely relevant. When we come to see the truth about evil forces in our own lives, and how it enslaves us and in the lives of others and in this world. Then verse 13 is truly liberating.

Look at it. For he has rescued us from the dominion, the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. This is the heart of the Christian message. We've been rescued from that. That's a hallelujah moment, isn't it?

To be a Christian is not me trying to get into the light or to clean myself up. It's all about what god has done. Look verse 12. It's the father that's qualified you for the inheritance verse 13. It is he who has rescued us verse 14.

It is Jesus who's redeemed us. We're qualified, rescued redeemed all by god. In other words, when I say I'm a Christian, I'm not saying I'm better than you, I'm saying I've been rescued by a god of grace and light and kindness. This is amazing declaration. You've been rescued from darkness.

And how has God done it? What's he done? Well, he's rescued us and he's transferred us. Look at verse 13. For he has rescued us from the power, the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves.

True Christianity is about god to the rescue. He's come to those who are in utter darkness in misery of our own darkness and Satan's lies all around us. He's come to the prison of a life that has no higher thing to live for than self. He's come to our dark times to rescue us. Listen to how the old testament puts it.

Isaiah a prophet. He says, see, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples. But the lord raises rises upon you and his glory appears appears. Over you. It's the lord himself.

He doesn't just switch a light on that's separate to him. He is the glory. The lord of glory, the lord of life Jesus who said I am the light of the world has come into the world. He's turned the lights on. Jesus is claiming that.

He's come to rescue us from our guilt and our sin and whatever the sins that we've done today and, you know, how how much they'll grow in the future. He's come to rescue us from that darkness. And look who he's rescued. Verse 13, it says for he has rescued us. If you just flicked over to in colossians 3 and 4, you'll see who the us are.

It's no matter I can't wait to get to this passage because they're some of my favorites. But in chapter 3 and 4, he mentions all types of people. You may see it. You I I I won't point them out, but you may see it. He mentions Jews and Greeks and barbarians and scythians and husbands and wives and children and masters and slaves and those who are in prison and those who are free people.

He's rescued all of them and then he puts himself in the us. Paul, a monotheistic moral living Jew. That was his world view. He says I've been rescued from darkness. Even though I'm a monotheistic good living god obeying person, still I know that I was actually drawn to darkness through coveting.

And thinking I was better than others. God has rescued us, all those different people. From darkness. And not only has he rescued us, he's transferred us. Look at verse 13 again.

For he has rescued us from the dominion, the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. That word brought there really would be better translated transferred. He's transferred us. From 1 kingdom to the other. It's it's what ancient dictators would often do.

They would come into a country, take over the country, grab often the elite from that country and take them back to their own country to be slaves, in their own country. They would transfer their citizenship. And in fact, in colossi, in the second century, BC, 2000 Jews had been transferred from Babylon to Colosi. So there were people in Colossev, this is the the city Paul is writing to, the Christians in that city, would know this whole transferring business. They'll be family members that would remember.

Yeah, our family was transferred to glossy. So Paul is saying this is that the that the dictators, they transfer losers and make them slaves. God transfers sinners and makes them sons. This is the glory of this passage, isn't it? This is the glory of god to sinners like us.

I mean, it makes you wonder why god didn't just blot us out and send us into the darkness that we seem to want to crawl around in. But know the god of light came in to transfer us sinners into making us sons. There's 1 old commentator. I like reading this bloke quite a lot. His name's William Hendrickson.

Any everybody anyone heard of him? Yeah. I knew I knew I knew Paulwood. Remember William Hendrix and Commentaries? Those gold ones.

Yeah. Yeah. You got them all. Yeah. I've got them all as well.

Yeah. And then he died and some other bloke came along to try to finish the commentaries he didn't do, and then they were nowhere near as good hendrikson. He was amazing. This is what he said. Just listen to some of the words he says about this passage.

He, that's Christ brought us out of the darkness and dismal realm of false ideas into the sun bathed land of clear knowledge and realistic expectations. It's fantastic. Out of the bewildering fear of perverted cravings and selfish hankering into the blissful realm of holy yearnings and glorious self denial out of the miserable dungeon of intolerable bonds and heart rending cries into the magnificent palace of glorious liberty and joyful songs. That's the transfer. That's the transfer.

Light instead of darkness, freedom instead of slavery, holiness instead of sin, life instead of death, love instead of hate, the kingdom of the son he loves instead of the dominion of darkness. He's brought you into a land of the kingdom of the sun he loves. That's what god has done. You're in love land, you're in the kingdom of love, the kingdom of liberty, the kingdom of forgiveness, the kingdom of cleansing, That's my second point. Third point, You got the power first of all of the of darkness, the power of redemption.

But thirdly, how has god done it? How has he rescued us and transferred us? Well, look at verse 14. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Redemption's a word that spells freedom if you're a slave.

It comes from the slave market. You're you're you're a slave. You need ransom you need paying for. And if your freedom's paid for, then you're free. Redemption is a wonderful word.

If you're a slave or if you're in darkness. It's a wonderful, wonderful word. And we're told that, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, The re the redemption is the forgiveness of sins. Our sins have been paid for, redeemed for, so we can be free. It's interesting because it is the plural word sins here.

It's not just our nature, which is sinful, That's been redeemed. Yes. But also all of the symptoms of our nature, all of the growth of a sin 1 judgment put a not guilty man to death, and it leads to the camps and could possibly leave lead to even what's going on now. 1 sin. 1 sin grows like dandelion weeds, growing all over the place.

But it says that we've been forgiven our sins, past, present, future, all the consequences of those sins that are blown all over the place. How on earth would we? How on earth would we be able to pull them back? When you blow the Dandelion seeds, Can you suddenly think, oh, 0, no. I I I must get oh, there's 1.

I'll gather that 1 there. I saw 1 flying over there. Oh, get out of the way butterfly. Oh, no. Let me get oh, no.

A bird's taking it off. Shoot the bird. Get the How do you get it back? But he says he's forgiven all of our sins. 1 act of injustice leads to a Holocaust.

All of our sins can be forgiven. All of them. It's extraordinary. There's no greater miracle than the forgiveness of sins. And I'll tell you why because the Bible says that god, the all knowing god, when he deals with your sins forgets them.

He blots them out. That's the miracle. That god forgets, isn't it? See, 1 reason why you can't really forgive yourself, all this business of we must forgive ourselves. You can't really because you always remember.

1 reason why it's so hard to forgive people is that you remember Only god almighty can forget them. I remember your sins no more. You're redeemed. The results of your sin are paid for. You're redeemed.

And how is that possible? Well, just quickly go over to colossians chapter 2. This is how it's possible. I'm not gonna preach on this because we're we're come to it eventually in their fantastic words. But how is it possible that my sins have forgiven?

Well, colossians chapter 2 verse 13. When you were dead in your sins, see how dark you were. You're dead. Your eyes are closed. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive in Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away nailing it to the cross and have dis and have and having disarmed the powers and authorities He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. How has our sins been forgiven by the lord of light Jesus himself dying on that cross, closing his eyes in darkness in darkness when the light went out hanging there in darkness, the light of life dying on the cross, canceling our sin, canceling our sins, canceling the products of our sins, canceling them so that you can be free and then rising again in that early morning when the sun was rising. You can't put the light out. He's died and risen again.

That's the Christian message. It's phenomenal, isn't it? Now what's our response to that? Brothers and sisters. Our response is verse 12.

We saw this last week. Joyfully giving thanks to the father. Won't you do that? Don't you wanna do that? Have I ruined these verses so that there's no joy in this room?

Isn't there joy? Everything you've ever said or done those seeds that can bring such darkness cancelled. There's freedom in that, isn't there? Our response is joyful. Thanks, not just thanks, as Thomas's telling us last week.

It was brilliant. Not just thanks. You can be thankful. Hang on. But remember when he's doing that?

Joyful. Thanks. You're really committed to thanks. Look, just look at verse 12. Here's something to thank god for.

I'm gonna ask you to do this now. And giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance. Of the holy people in the kingdom of light. That's where you are. Do you know how many billionaires there are in our country?

I looked it up. Apparently, there's a hundred and 70 billionaires in our country, a hundred and 70 billionaires. They mostly live around here. Yeah? Thank you for coming billionaire, but we don't need you.

Every Christian in Cornerstone is richer than all those billionaires. There's more than 171 here. We have more than 171 billionaires at Cornerstone Church. That would be worth saying, wouldn't it? Next time, oh, what sort of people coming to your church?

Well, we have more than 171 billionaires coming. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. People might wanna come every single Christian.

That'd be our tagline. Every single is richer than Elon Musk. You've got an inheritance from who the god of light. You don't have to tread on people to get rich. You give your life to Christ, and then you give your life to his servant.

And that makes you an inheritor of the kingdom of light, you're a shareholder and you won't lose those shares. Yeah. You're a shareholder, and you won't lose those shares. That's that's your, what's the thing you get when you when you retire? Pension.

Pension. That's your pension. Yeah. I mean, I was looking at my pension because it's all coming in. It's worth about a pound, you know, it's like a pound a year.

Think How am I meant to live off that? And you're thinking, well, no die, it'll be better because then your wife will at least get it, or at 50 p anyway. I mean, you know, It's all that money goes into a pension, and you that's what you get at the end of it. It's a load of nonsense, but it won't happen here. The shareholder the shareholder is you in this inheritance of the kingdom of light.

Where's the joyful things? We're gonna sing great song in a minute. And that's 1 way to to give thanks is to rip the song out. Oh, happy day. That fixed my choice.

Oh, happy day. We're gonna sing that. Yeah? Great song. Yeah?

Where's the band? Gonna rip that out. Yeah? That's 1 way to give thanks, but perhaps some of you, and we'll just give you 4 minutes. Wanna stand up and say thank you for rescuing me.

So what do you gotta say? Or thank you for rescuing whoever. Why don't we do that? Let's hear some joyful thanks Doesn't matter if someone over here is saying it at the same time as you or 4 are doing it at the same time. Why don't we fill this room with joyful thanks?

Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me. In fact, all around this room, you're a billionaire. Thank the lord. Why don't we do that?

And then we're sing the song. So 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, Just go around. You don't have to do it. I'm not forcing anyone to do things, but, hey, it would encourage us, wouldn't it? To hear joyful thanks and it only has to be a thank you.

So let's bow our heads if we wanna and do that. And then over to Tom when we're seeing this last song together. Father, we give you great praise for the wonderful gospel that we've just heard explained and preached to us. We thank you for the the joyful thanks that we can grow in and that we can give to you for all that you have done for us. We thank you that when we were in the darkness and the slavery, and a hell of our own sin that you bust the door down, that you open the windows, that you filled our lives with the light of your truth and that you have rescued us and you have transferred us all that we are and all that we own into a new kingdom.

Where we can serve you gladly and, we pray that you'd help us, to continue to grow in thanks, that we would be forever looking back to the happy day of our salvation and that the joy of it would never lose its shine or wonder to us, we pray. We pray that you'd help us to be big with sharing the news of salvation with this desperately lost and dark world. And we pray father for anyone here this morning who who might be on the edge with these things, who might be unsure where they stand, who might be wanting to find out more and ask questions and we do pray for them this morning father that they would speak to a Christian that they're sat with or speak to 1 of us at the door and want to find out more about this great rescue, and we ask that in Jesus name, amen.