Colossians 1:12
Introduction
For several weeks now, we’ve been working our way through Paul’s prayer for the church in Colossae. And thus far, what an awesome prayer it has been.
Let’s take a look back at this prayer up to this point. How many people in your life would benefit if you prayed this prayer on their behalf?
In verses 3-4 Paul thanks God for the faith and transformed lives of the Colossian believers.
In verse 9 he asks God to give them a full knowledge of His will for their lives as well as deep spiritual understanding and wisdom.
In verse 10 he asks God to help them live for Him and to add to their ever growing knowledge of Him and His will.
In verse 11 he asks God to infuse them with His strength and to fill them with joy.
What a powerful prayer. How many of you would love for someone to pray that prayer for you? How many of you know someone you could be praying that prayer for?
Paul somewhat switches gears in the next three verses. Instead of focusing on what Paul wants God to do for them, he turns his attention to what God has already done to make all that he has asked for an ultimate reality.
Before we dive into that, let me explain what I mean by this. When an individual is truly borne again they receive the Spirit of God. He literally takes up residence in your heart. The bible refers to His Spirit as a consuming fire. It burns within the deepest recesses of your heart producing a desire within to know God intimately, and to please Him and serve Him with your life. And the more that desire is fulfilled, the stronger you become at fighting the temptation to sin because you know that it breaks His heart and grieves the Spirit that has taken up residence in your heart. That is why John wrote in 1 John 3:9 “Whoever has been borne of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been borne of God.” Now, he’s not talking about not being capable of sinning, we’re all capable of sin. What he means is, as a child of God, it is impossible to sin and not feel such a deep conviction that it eats you up inside. You see, we cannot sin, because we don’t want to sin, because it hurts too much to sin! So, when you see someone who proclaims to be a child of God living a lifestyle of sin, it’s for one of two reasons:
1) They are simply not saved. They don’t feel conviction over sin because they don’t have the Holy Spirit to convict them.
2) They have become numb to the Holy Spirits conviction which the bible refers to as quenching the spirit. This happens when a true child of God becomes so wrapped up in sin and learns to shut out that inner torment by making excuses or rationalizing.
The point is, all the wonderful things that where happening in the lives of the Colossian believers and all that Paul prayed for on their behalf are completely and solely that sovereign work of God. And that is where Paul now turns his attention in verses 12-14.
Colossians 1:12
Verse 12
Giving thanks to the Father
Too often giving thanks is underemphasized in the prayers of God’s children. We tend to focus our thankfulness on the temporal gifts that God has provided that make our lives a little more comfortable. But, throughout scripture, you find evidence of what a truly thankful heart is thankful for. After all, Paul’s life was anything but comfortable. In fact he often suffered more in one day than most of us suffer in a lifetime. He suffered beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonments, mockings, you name it. But yet, he never failed to give thanks to God for the great things he was doing and had done. If anyone had a right to complain about what was going on in his life it was Paul. So why didn’t he? Because Paul knew God intimately. He was keenly aware that everything that happened in his life had a purpose. There are some right here in this room, I’m sure, that are probably pretty broken at this point in life and find it hard to thank God for their circumstances. I’m here to tell you, God knows and understands. All you need to do is draw near to Him, walk with Him, and let Him teach you that He has a plan for you and what ever you’re going through at this point may seem like hell but His plans are perfect. All you need to do is draw close enough to discover it.
Thankfulness, however, is not the topic of today’s message even though there is much to be said about it. Today we’re going to look at the reason for Paul’s thankfulness.
Qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light
Here we find the first two of six points for which Paul expresses thanksgiving. The first is our qualification.
This word “qualified” means “to make sufficient or fit”. The emphasis is on the fact that we are not qualified to inherit anything from God through our own merits. It is the Father who has qualified us. It is God who has made us sufficient. Many have said in regard to Gods forgiveness, that He looks upon His children with rose colored glasses stained by the blood of Christ. But when you weigh that against God’s word you come to find that it’s not entirely accurate. It sounds good, but it is a horrible way to describe His mercy. You see, if that where true, it would mean that God merely overlooks the sin in our lives, the love is blind concept. But the truth is, God doesn’t overlook sin. He eliminates it. To say that God looks upon us with rose colored glasses is to say that we are the same today as we where before we where saved and that God only views us differently. How does that stand up against 2 Corinthians 5:17? The truth is, before God saved us by his grace, we where in every way unfit for any inheritance. Ephesians 2:1-3 describes our condition before salvation. Before salvation, we where controlled by three things:
1) The world system of theology and wisdom.
2) Satan himself
3) Our own sinful desires
The bible tells us that, in this state of being, we are hopeless, completely cut off from God and utterly incapable of doing anything about it. We where ignorant, callous, immoral, impure and greedy and we enjoyed it. But the only thing we where fit for was God’s wrath. Eternity in hell. And that is exactly what we would have received had it not been for God’s great mercy toward us. God, in His mercy, made fit the unfit. How did he do that? We find the answer to that in Ezekiel 11:19-20. As you are all aware, this is one issue that really gets my goat. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say that they refuse to go to church because the church is so full of hypocrites. It is so common to hear people outside the church complain about people inside the church living immoral lifestyles. The sad thing is, they’re often right. But, I want to emphasize, that it’s not their fault. So many are being mislead by doctrines like “the rose colored glasses” theory that sound good, but do nothing for the transformation of the heart. God doesn’t look at us differently, he changes us. He transforms us by giving us a new heart with new desires, new passions, new convictions, new motives, new direction, new life. This is called being borne again and it is how he makes us fit. And he does so that we might be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
The second point for which Paul expresses thanks is our inheritance which we receive having been made fit. When a man, woman or child is made fit by the new birth they become children of God. Romans 8:15-17 As children of God we receive an inheritance. That inheritance consists of three things:
1) Eternal life. This is not something you receive in the future, but the bible describes it as beginning the day you are borne again. It is also more than life without end. It is also described in scripture as quality of life. It is Christ’s life lived in you. 1 John 5:20 Here John describes eternal life as intimate communion with Jesus Christ.
2) The Earth and all creation. In Matthew 5:5 Jesus said that believers would inherit the Earth. This is a reference to our future inheritance, when we rule with Christ in the millennial Kingdom. This knowledge that we will one day inherit the Earth should make us think twice about pursuing material possessions at the expense of others and God! After all when that day comes we’ll have far more than we could ever attain in this life.
3) All the promises of God. Hebrews 6:12 The list of these promises is much to long for us to go into. To do so would keep us here all week. But they include eternal peace, joy, and love.
Paul goes on to say that this inheritance is that of the saints in the light. The question is this, is our inheritance in the light or are the saints in the light? In closing, the answer is, both. And you’ll have to come back next week to find out how.
