Colossians 1:12-14 - Give Thanks to the Father

Introduction

My aim this morning is to increase your thanksgiving to God.

I want you to leave here marveling at God’s grace in Jesus Christ, experiencing anew the joy of your salvation.

I want you to leave here giving thanks to the Father for saving you from eternal death through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.

I want you to leave here bursting with thanksgiving.

When we think of the Father, our hearts need to burst with thanksgiving because the practice of thanksgiving encourages faithful living.

Thankfulness feeds faithfulness.

Paul wanted to remind the Colossian Christians of the reasons they had to give God thanks because they were in danger of drifting away from God.

False teaching had wormed its way into the Colossian church, a false teaching that attacked the preeminence of Jesus.

In his letter, Paul stressed the supremacy of Jesus to the Colossians reminding them that it was through Jesus that the Father had saved them.

And we need that reminder today as well.

We need to remember that Jesus is preeminent and that the Father sent him, the Preeminent One, to save us.

Paul opened this letter with a greeting in vv. 1-2.

He then moved to thanksgiving to God for the salvation of the Colossians in vv. 3-8.

And then he moved to his prayers for the Colossians beginning in v. 9.

Let’s pick up in v. 9.

[READING - Colossians 1:9-14]

Colossians 1:9–11 NASB95

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

And pay special attention to vv. 12-14 where Paul prays for the Colossians to give thanks to the Father…

Colossians 1:12–14 NASB95

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Verses 12-14 are the verses that we want to focus on this morning.

These are the verses that I hope the Father uses to increase your thanksgiving to him.

Let ask him to do that.

[PRAYER]

[TS] There are three REASONS to give thanks to the Father in Colossians 1:12-14…

Major Ideas

REASON #1: The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light (v. 12).

Colossians 1:12 NASB95

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

[EXP] There is an inheritance of the saints in Light.

The inheritance of the saints refers to all the promises of God he has earmarked for the followers of Jesus, His Son.

It refers to the blessings of God reserved for Christians.

It refers to all the promises of God that find there yes and amen in Jesus.

In Colossians 1:5 it is the hope laid up for us in heaven.

But we had once been cutoff or disqualified from receiving our portion of this inheritance.

In Adam’s sin, we all sinned. We rebelled against God who gave us life, and just as Adam was cutoff from the paradise of Eden, we were cutoff from the blessings of God.

All that remained for us was the curse of sin and death, eternal separation from God.

But now, through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have been qualified to receive our portion of the inheritance of the saints.

The death and resurrection of Jesus has qualified us to receive the eternal inheritance laid up for us in heaven (Heb. 9:15).

And it is the Father who has qualified us.

We did not qualify ourselves, the Father qualified us!

And because the Father took the initiative in qualifying us, the inheritance promised to us is guaranteed!

This is what the Father has purposed for us in Jesus Christ, and nothing can stand in the way of what he has purposed for us!

Because he has qualified us, it is guaranteed!

Therefore, we should give thanks to him!

In our sinfulness, we forfeited our right to his blessings. We only qualified ourselves for his curses. But he qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints by forgiving our sin and giving us righteousness—a righteousness that is from start to finish by faith in his Son, Jesus, whom the Father sent to lay down his life as our perfect sacrifice.

By giving us the gift of faith in Jesus and by counting that faith to us as righteousness, the Father has qualified us to share in the blessings of salvation, the inheritance of the saints, and for that reason above all others, we should thank the Father!

[ILLUS] Let’s imagine we are having Wednesday night Bible study, and the passage is one on giving thanks to God.

And let’s say that I ask, “What reasons do we have to give thanks to God?”

How would you have answered that question before we talked about this passage in Colossians?

How would you answer that question now that we have talked about this passage in Colossians?

[APP] I hope that you would now say, “Oh, we should thank God because he has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints! He has saved us, graced us, redeemed us, and guaranteed to us all his blessing in Jesus Christ!”

I hope that’s what you would now say, but too often when we thank God, the first things we think of have nothing to do his saving grace in Jesus Christ.

We thank him for our country.

We thank him for our children and grandchildren.

We thank him for our homes.

We thank him for food on the table.

And please don’t miss understand me, we ought to thank God for all of those things!

But why do those things rise to the top of the thanksgiving list while our salvation falls way down the list if its on the list at all?

I think the problem is that we are more grateful to be Americans than we are to be Christians.

I think we are more grateful to be parents and grandparents than we are to be children of God.

I think we are more thankful for our homes here on earth than we are for our home in heaven.

I think we are more thankful for bread set before us this afternoon at lunch than we are for the bread of heaven, Jesus Christ, who has come down to give us eternal life.

Please notice that I said “we are,” not “you are.” I struggle with this too.

But we ought to be more grateful for God’s grace to us in Jesus, more grateful for our inheritance in the saints, more grateful for salvation, more grateful for that than we are for anything else!

So, let’s put this at the top of our thanksgiving list: “the Father has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”

[TS] And let’s put this up there with it: “the Father has rescued me from the domain of darkness.”

REASON #2: The Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness (v. 13a).

Colossians 1:13 NASB95

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

[EXP] There is a domain or kingdom of darkness.

When Paul, who authored these words to the Colossian believers, was called by Jesus, Jesus said that he was sending Paul to “to open (people’s) eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God…,” (Acts 26:18).

The domain of darkness is the dominion of Satan, and we once lived under its rule and were in danger of receiving the wrath that God has stored up for that kingdom.

In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul wrote…

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 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. 3 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.

The prince of the power of the air refers to Satan, the accuser, the adversary, the chief rebel against God’s holy authority and the leader of all other rebels.

Before God rescued us, we lived under the rule of Satan in the domain of darkness indulging the lusts of our flesh.

We were children of wrath storing up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God appears.

That’s where we were and that’s who we were when the Father rescued us!

We didn’t escape the domain of darkness.

We didn’t rebel against Satan’s rule.

We once lived in agreement with the rulers of this sinful domain, in agreement with the powers of evil, in agreement with the cosmic forces over this present darkness, in agreement with the spiritual forces of wickedness (cf., Eph. 6:12).

And we didn’t one day decide that we were done with the darkness; no, while we were still enslaved to it, God rescued us.

Once again, recall what Ephesians 2:1-3 says, that we were once dead in our sins and trespasses, living under the rule of Satan, indulging the desires of our sinful flesh, by nature children of wrath like everyone else enslaved to sin…

…but then listen to Ephesians 2:4-5!

Ephesians 2:4–5 NASB95

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

What do those verses say!?

They say that God rescued us!

He rescued us not because we’re so great but because he is rich in mercy!

He rescued us not because we’re so lovable but because he is great in love!

He rescued us not according to deeds we had done (for we were dead in our sinful deeds), but he made us alive in Christ!

He did it all!

It all came from his grace!

And we should give him thanks!

[ILLUS] A friend of man posted a link this past week to a news story out of Japan. His post just said, “Wow. This is a pretty remarkable rescue,” and it really was.

A Chinese woman in her 20s was swimming with friends off the coast of Shimoda, a Japanese city about 125 miles southwest of Tokyo, when she was suddenly swept out to sea.

This would be like swimming off the coast of Dauphin Island and being swept out into the Gulf of Mexico except worse.

A friend of hers notified the Japanese Coast Guard on Monday night and Wednesday the young woman was finally spotted by a cargo ship 50 miles out in the Pacific Ocean.

The cargo ship asked a nearby tanker for help, and two of its crew members jumped into the ocean to rescue the woman.

A coast guard helicopter soon airlifted her to a hospital where she was treated for mild dehydration and released.

The Japanese coast guard said she was lucky to have survived due to the dangers of heat stroke, hypothermia, and being hit by a ship.

As my friend said, it was a pretty remarkable rescue.

How thankful do you think this young woman was to be rescued from the ocean?

[APP] How thankful should we be to have been rescued from the domain of darkness?

You see, her rescue was certainly remarkable, but our rescue from the domain of darkness is even more remarkable.

We weren’t just drifting in the darkness, we were residents of the darkness!

We weren’t just mildly dehydrated, we were dead in our sins and trespasses!

We weren’t just in danger of heat stroke, hypothermia, or being hit by ship in the night, we were in danger of being crushed for all eternity under the righteous wrath of God!

God is life, and he has given us life, and we chose death by rebelling against the Author of Life!

We deserved to receive death because death is what we chose by sinning against God.

And yet, if we have trusted in God’s Son, Jesus, God has rescued us from death.

He has set us free from the domain of darkness!

[TS] Oh, thank the Father all you Christians for he has…

…qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints…

…rescued you from the domain of darkness…

…and our third REASON, he has transferred you to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

REASON #3: The Father has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (vv. 13b-14).

Colossians 1:13–14 NASB95

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[EXP] Opposite of the domain of darkness, there is the kingdom of the Father’s beloved Son.

The beloved Son is, of course, Jesus, and his kingdom is not of this world; it is a kingdom not ruined by the growing effects of sin and death.

His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness for he is a righteous king, and those who enter his kingdom must be righteous as he is.

We haven’t always been citizens of the kingdom of Jesus. We haven’t always lived there because we haven’t always been righteous like him.

But on the cross, the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to be the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf, so that in his death and resurrection we might become the righteousness of God through faith in him (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).

By way of the cross, the Father transferred us to kingdom of his beloved Son.

Just as we didn’t qualify ourselves in v. 12 or rescue ourselves in the first part of v. 13, we didn’t transfer ourselves in the second part of v. 13.

It was the Father who did it all through the Son so that we could be saved.

As you see in v. 14, it is through faith in the Father’s Son we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Verse 14 in the NLT translation says that in Jesus, the Father purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Freedom and forgiveness is what the Father gave to us in His Son.

Freedom from slavery to sin.

Forgiveness of all our sins.

[ILLUS] Imagine that you commit a crime and go to prison. Inside the prison, you feel like the only way to survive is to commit more crimes, so you lie, cheat, steal, and fight.

But one day you are escorted to the wardens office and he tells you that you are being transferred.

You ask, “What prison am I being transferred to?”

And he says, “Oh, you’re not being transferred to another prison; you’re being released.”

You, without thinking, spit out an objection, “But my sentence isn’t up?”

The warden says, “Your crime has been forgiven.”

You, without thinking, spit out a worry, “But what if I commit another crime? I mean, this will still be on my record, and if even get a speeding ticket, won’t I just end up back in prison?”

The warden says, “No. Your record has been cleared, and the one who forgave your sentence has guaranteed your righteousness on the outside. You may not sense it yet, but the one who forgave you changed you. You’re being transferred, set free forever, so you won’t be back in this prison again.”

[APP] The freedom and forgiveness that we experience in Jesus Christ has changed us.

We don’t want to go back to domain of darkness. We don’t want to go back to slavery to sin. And we won’t go back because Jesus has guaranteed our righteousness.

Now we want to live in the redemption that the Father sent the Son to purchase for us on the cross!

This is how we say thank you to the Father!

We live as his obedient sons and daughters…

…because he has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints!

We live in the light…

…because he has rescued us from the domain of darkness!

We live according to the law of Christ…

…because he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son!

Oh, give him thanks this morning because we are never going back to the domain of darkness!

We are never going back to sin and death!

We have been changed, made new, set free, redeemed, and forgiven by God’s grace in Jesus Christ!

Oh, give him thanks in your heart!

Give him thanks in with your mouth!

Give him thanks by living your life for him!

[TS]…

Conclusion

[PRAYER]