Paul’s Prayer For The Saints - Pt 2

Intro

Last week we looked at Pauls prayer for the Colossians

We looked at his petition, this week his praise

He is going to discuss thanksgiving (giving thanks)

Similar to vs 3, so let’s look at what Pauls thankful encouragement earlier was

Thankful for

Faith in Christ v 4

Love for all the saints v 4

Hope that is laid up for them v 5

Last week, we observed

Paul views prayer as essential for the church and sees himself as a ministry partner through prayer

Paul is praying for “thriving” christians to continue on the course that they have begun

Then we looked at Pauls 3 requests of

Knowledge

Wisdom & understanding from the spirit

Holiness

Understanding will fuel holiness and holiness will deepen understanding

Strength - that is given to us out of the abundant, unlimited, unmatched strength of God

For endurance with patience

Now, after making supplication to God for these Colossians christians, Paul is going to breakout in praise to the father for what he has done for us through his son

“With Joy”

Does joy modify endurance & patience or thanksgiving?

Believe it modifies our thanksgiving

bearing fruit IN every good work

increasing in the knowledge of God

strengthened with all power

While I believe it is modifying thanksgiving, it is completely appropriate to attach Joy to any experience of the Christian life

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

We have a joy, in christ, that accompanies us through the good times and the bad.

SHOW HAPPINESS & JOY DISTINCTION?

Jesus asks for cup to pass yet hebrews says

Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The foundation of gratitude

We have many reasons to be thankful. It doesn’t take you long to sit down and fill a sheet of paper with all the reasons that you have to be thankful for

God’s provision in your life

Finances, abilities, gifts, etc

People that God has put in your life

Ministry fruit & growth

Both personally in your own life as well as others

Trials

Romans 5:3–4 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,”

Answered prayer

God’s creation

What Paul lays out next the foundation in which all other gratitude flows out of. He lays out the gospel and gives thanks to the father for qualifying us, delivering us, transferring us & redeeming us.

In fact

There seems to be some harkening back to israel in the old testament and the promised land

Let’s look at each one of these

God has qualified us

Colossians 1:12 “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Qualified - “made sufficient” “made worthy”

What has he qualified us for?

To share in the in an inheritance

You know who receives an inheritance, an heir. You know who an heir is, a child

In Christ that is what you are

In Christ, God makes you an heir, adopts you into the family and gives you an inheritance

Galatians 4:1–7 “I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 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!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Do you see yourself as an heir? Do you see yourself as a son or daughter of God?

You are not a nuisance

You are not a burden

You are not a temporary guest in the house of the lord.

You are a son or daughter of the God of the universe

Killing sin holding to the doctrine of adoption

Elements of inheritance

Eternal life

Matthew 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

Kingdom of God

James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”

The Earth

Matthew 5:5 ““Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

All the promises of God

Hebrews 6:12 “so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Everything

Hebrews 1:2 “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

We are heirs w/ Christ

Romans 8:16–17 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

If thats not enough

Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

In Christ all that God owns is ours, not to show how great we are but to magnify the glory of Christ

Qualities of inheritance

Eternal Inheritance

Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

Glorious inheritance

Ephesians 1:18 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”

Imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you

1 Peter 1:3–5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Guaranteed inheritance

Ephesians 1:13–15 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,”

do you live like thats true

This inheritance we see is of the saints in light

Saints in light? What does that mean?

First we look at Saints.

Saints = set apart, holy ones, consecrated

There is some debate amongst scholars as to what these saints are but when determining the meaning of the text we need to look closest to the text

Concentric circles

1. Immediate Context (the verse or phrase itself)

2. Near Context (paragraph or pericope)

3. Book Context

4. Authorial Context

5. Canonical Context

6. Historical & Covenant Context

Earlier in our study

Colossians 1:2 “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Colossians 1:4 “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,”

Colossians 1:12 “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Saints = Christians

Did we do that? How we make ourselves saints? How do we qualify ourselves?

We don’t. We can’t.

Paul thanks God, because God has done it.

Do we need to respond to the gospel? Yes. Do we need to trust in Christ? Absolutely

It’s commanded.

But don’t get it confused, Paul is breaking out in thanksgiving and praise to God for what he’s done .

Paul says that God qualified for you.

Meaning, that before he did that, you weren’t qualified

You were unqualified, unworthy, insufficient, unfit

Your sin

TURN TO EPH 2

Ephesians 2:1–5 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

Does that sound like someone who is qualified for an inheritance?

But god qualifies you in his sons qualifications

Born without a sin nature.

Lives perfect life

obeying the law of the lord perfectly, never sinning

Loving the lord his God with all his heart mind strength

Check

Bearing up under the wrath of the father and dying for the sins of his people

Check

Rising from the grave and defeating death, sin, the devil

Jesus is qualified

Jesus has the stats

Jesus has the resume

Jesus is not only the top name in the book of most qualified, he is the only one

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Christian, in Christ, you are qualified

God turns you into a son or daughter

When you become a Christian you put on a new jersey

Challenging qualification

These saints were dealing with some who apparently were challenging their qualification

TURN TO COL 2 16

There were some who were saying that Christ wasn’t sufficient to qualify you. That you needed to do more in order to be qualified.

Rome teaches

Jesus PLUS

Jesus plus anything shows you don’t believe in the sufficiency of his life and death

Jesus didn’t say it is started, he said it is FINISHED

The irony it those outside the faith who think themselves to be qualified on their own merit and those inside the faith who question their qualifications

Can I tell you something… outside of Christ you are unqualified, you will die one day and stand face to face with God and he will hold up your resume, your list of qualifications, and your qualifications don’t cut it, and your family name won’t match.

But if you are in Christ, if you fling yourself on his mercy and place your faith and trust in his qualifications, in his name, you will stand before God almighty and his resume will be yours, his name will be yours, his qualifications will be yours, his inheritance yours

His stats are yours

His obedience is yours

His faithfulness is yours

His resume, yours

His kingdom, yours

His inheritance, yours

When you hear that lie from the devil, look to the son and rest in the assurance of your qualification and your inheritance

Light

our previous domain vs current kingdom

Ephesians 5:8 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

vs 13 elaborates on vs 12

So let’s look at that next. Paul is going to show us how it is that God has made us saints, qualified us, gave us an inheritance in light

Deliverance

He - Father

Has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to to the kingdom of his beloved son

Perhaps Paul had here on his mind israels exodus

Israel was in bondage and slavery and bondage to egypt and God delivers them from that

Exodus 6:6–8 “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver (LXX, rhyomai) you from slavery to them, and I will redeem (lytroō) you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession (klēros). I am the Lord.’ ””

Here Paul seems to be describing the great rescue. Much like the first rescue, we were under slavery and bondage to sin, and god, in his great might, delivers us from that slavery and bondage and transfers us not to a promised land but a promised kingdom.

Deliverance ministries - Isaiah Salvidor & Greg Locke

There is a deliverance that needs to happen in everyones life

Slaves to sin

Let me tell you something, if you are in Christ the deliverance has already happened.

YOU HAVE BEEN DELIVERED.

He HAS done it. Past tense

God delivers us by transferring us

Transferring us to a kingdom

Not just any kingdom, but the kingdom of his beloved son

The greek is literately rendered the “the son of his love”

God didn’t simply remove us from the darkness but brought us into the light, into the kingdom of the son of his love.

Want us to see a couple things here.

There are only two options.

Domain of darkness

Kingdom of Christ

There is no neutrality

I’m spiritual

I believe in a higher power

I believe in God

James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

Not with him you’re against him

Matthew 12:30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

I love you enough to tell you that you playing around with spirituality is not going to cut it.

Repent

Believe on the lord Jesus

Call upon his name

Recognize your qualifications only leave you unqualified, but he is sufficient

2. Christ is king

This is his kingdom

We have been transferred into it but make no mistake, the king is on the throne

Teaching that Jesus can be savior but not lord

In this kingdom

We will judge angels

We will rule and reign

We will feast at the marriage supper of the lamb

We will have perfect fellowship with God

We will be free from the presence of sin

What a kingdom…

It’s coming for us

Redemption

This deliverance and transference was costly

In WHOM - thats Jesus, the son of the fathers love, the king of this eternal kingdom

We have redemption

Redemption - Ransom, price paid to deliver

Language would have brought imagery to mind of a slave paying for their freedom

See to deliver you, to forgive your sins, to qualify you, came at great cost

The cost was his life

Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”

If God simply looks at your sins and sweeps them under the rug then he is not just

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The cross is where justice and mercy collide, where the wrath of God bent for you is instead diverted onto the son. Where God takes all of your sin and nails it to the cross so that all he has for you is favor.

Yes the Gospel is a free gift but it is free only in the sense that it is free for us, but came at great cost to himself.

And for that, we erupt in thanksgiving and praise to the father, because he has qualified us, delivered us, transfered us, forgiven our sins, all at the great cost of the son, to an inheritance that is guaranteed to us by the spirit.