Lord Of All Series

Lord of All

Colossians 1:13-20

Hudson Taylor was a man who made Jesus his Lord. The son of a preacher, saved at the age of 15 Hudson Taylor as a youth fully surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.

His pastor father had prayed for years that his son would go to China as a missionary and as a teenager Hudson Taylor answered the call.

Hudson Taylor started the China Inland Mission and when he came back to England to recruit more young people as missionaries he had one interview question.: Is Jesus your Lord?

He is quoted as saying this reason for that question; If Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all!

Hundreds of young people surrendered to take the Gospel to China through his leadership and the entire world knew of his surrender and sacrifice to our Lord. When he was introduced to speak at a conference in Australia there was a long list of accolades. Hudson Taylor stood up and said as JTB before him, “Friends, I’m just a little servant of an illustrious Master”

As we continue our study this morning on the book of Colossians the apostle Paul would have us respond to Jesus the same way Hudson Taylor did. So the question “Is Jesus your Lord?”

The false teachers at Colossae were just like the world today. They wouldn’t deny Jesus just dethrone Jesus. Give Jesus prominence for his teachings and his good will but not preeminence as the Lord of All.

John Howard Yoder talks about the person of Christ and his lordship over all our lives when he writes: “Christians begin to deny their Lord when they admit that there are certain realms of life in which it would be inappropriate to bring Christ’s rule to bear...

Of course, non-Christians will insist that we should keep our religion out of the way of their politics. But the reason for that is not that Jesus has nothing to do with the public realm, it is that they want nothing to do with Jesus as Lord. . . . What we believe about Christ must apply to all our behavior, no matter how many of our neighbors remain unconvinced.”

So let’s look today at how God’s word through Paul in this letter answers the question; Is Jesus our Lord?

I. Jesus is The Savior (v.13-14)

Mankind’s greatest problem is not the economy, global warming, health insurance, gas prices or political leadership. Our greatest problem is sin. Sinners need a Savior and if we really can see our own sin today, if we really grasp how sinful you and I are, how faithless, fearful, and griping we are then we would all shout: How Great a Savior we have!

Well what makes Him so great?

A. He rescued us (v.13)

That word delivered means we were rescued from danger. We could not deliver ourselves from sin and from hell so Jesus came to the rescue.

Notice also were rescued from the power of darkness and conveyed or moved from one place to another.

I love old movies especially old westerns. Danger surrounds a wagon train and they are about to lose all hope and suddenly in the distance. Dir..to..dir..to..dir..to..dir..to...dir.

Where the army soldiers slip behind enemy lines and rescue the prisoners of war and totally catch the enemy by surprise. I imagine that’s how it is when the Gospel is being preached.

The enemy says I got you and people don’t even know they are a POW and as Gomer Pyle said...Surprise...Surprise...Surprise...another soul rescued!

B. He redeemed us (v.14)

The word redemption means to “release a prisoner by payment or ransom.” The word forgiveness means “to send away” or “to cancel a debt.”

Folks please here this when a person gets rescued by Jesus. They are released from the jail cell of sin the ransom has been paid...Our sins are then sent away as far as the East is from the West and the debt that we owe is cancelled by Christ.

Please get this today. You and I were not put on lay away nor were we bought by monthly installments. All sin was forgiven...I’m about to have a spell...ALL SIN was forgiven look @ verse 14 “Through His blood”

AT THE CROSS ALL SIN was forgiven! There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood==Lose ALL their guilty stains.

A deacon had a dream. He was on his way to heaven. Before him there stretched a long flight of stairs. As he started to go up, he was given a piece of chalk and told that he must put a chalk mark on each of the steps for each sin he had committed. When he was about halfway up he met the pastor coming down. He enquired why the pastor was returning, and the pastor answered, "I’m just going back to get some more chalk!"