Colossians: Deliverance

Click HERE to listen or download this talk on mp3...






Talk intro:

We’re going to continue our journey through the book of Colossians today. Last week we started looking at one of the prayers that the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church but also to those of us who are part of the Church today.

We’re going to continue to the next part of this letter today. It’s important for us to remember that the main focus of this prayer is the preeminence of Christ. Paul is using this prayer as an introduction to Jesus.

Let’s read Colossians 1:13-14

I want you see that the tipping point of everything is Jesus. We are delivered and conveyed by the Father because we have been redeemed and forgiven through Jesus.

That’s an important point because once again Paul is showing us that Christ is the way of entry into all the blessings that God has given us. It’s also important to note that there is nothing we can do to help ourselves.

There are three things mentioned in these verses that have been done for us.

God doesn’t help those who help themselves He helps those who turn to Christ.

In Christ we have redemption and forgiveness of sin. In vs. 14 Paul writes that in the Son of His love we have redemption. The Greek word that Paul uses here would have been familiar to the Colossian believers because it was used in reference to purchasing a slave from the slave market.

But to the Jews it would have pointed back to their deliverance from Egypt. The idea for both is that they were in the grip of someone more powerful than they were. They could envision being powerless and downtrodden to really make any changes other than to possibly make their bondage more tolerable.

Paul equates this bondage to sin. We are under the severe pain of sin by our own doing and because of that we are part of the kingdom of darkness. The enemy of our souls didn’t take us by force; we walked willingly into his kingdom and sold our souls to get there with no possibility of escape or parole.

But because of Jesus we have been purchased from the bondage of our sin and forgiven because He shed His blood for us. Because of what Jesus did…

The Father has delivered us from the power of darkness. In vs. 13 The Greek word for delivered has two connected meanings. It means to be rescued but it also means to be drawn in.

Years ago the nation was focused on the fate of little girl known as “baby Jessica” who had been playing in the back yard and suddenly fell head long in the dark abyss of a dry well. For 2 ½ days they worked to rescue her by digging a parallel shaft and when they finally reached her the rescuer reached out and took her in his arms as they rose to the surface together. They had gone down to get her and set her free and help her close.

That’s a picture of God has done for us. Jesus made a way for the Father to reach down into our darkness to rescue and draw us close to His heart. The other part of this image captures what happens next.

The Father has conveyed us into kingdom of the Son of His love. The rescuer was holding that little girl and carried her back to her family. She was conveyed from one place to another. The idea of conveyance has a physical part to it where you literally carry something from one place to another. It’s also a change in circumstances and to put something where it belongs.

Baby Jessica wasn’t meant to live in a dark hole and neither are we. God’s desire and intention for us from the very beginning has been for us to live in fellowship with Him.

In the spiritual realm God has put us back where we belong. While we live this life in the world surrounded by darkness, we have been transferred into the kingdom of Christ Jesus by the Father and someday we will be there in body and spirit. But for now we live there by faith.