INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Today we will wrap up or series God Is Big Enough; Changing our ideas about God.
• Today we will examine an area that does not receive enough attention, the idea that God is big enough to conquer my sin.
• The issue of sin is one that has plagued mankind since Adam, with the encouragement of his wife Eve, chose to take a bit of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden.
• Sin means to miss the mark, God gave Adam and Eve a target to hit and they missed and we have been missing every since.
• Sin is a universal struggle for people, God knows this and the Bible tells us as such.
• SLIDE #2
• Romans 3:23 (HCSB) — 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• Sin is something that if ignored will leave one short of being able to be with God for eternity.
• Sin is the one of the areas of life in which one cannot fix themselves, one needs help.
• I cannot cure my sin problem without Jesus. Jesus is the one who God sent to fix our sin problem.
• God had a plan before time and He revealed His plan back in Genesis. When God was speaking to the serpent, God told him;
• SLIDE #3
• Genesis 3:15 (HCSB) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
• When sin entered the world, God has a way to conquer it! Today we are going to look at the fact that God is Big Enough TO Conquer My sin!
• I will offer some background into the passage we will examine today.
• Paul writes this letter to the church at Colossae during his first Roman imprisonment in about 62 AD. Ephesians and Philemon were sent along with this letter to the churches.
• SLIDE #4
• Paul never preached in Colossae, it was most likely started by those who heard Paul preach while he was in Ephesus. Ephesus was 90 miles west of Colossae.
• A troublesome issue that Paul addressed in the letter was that of Gnosticism. The Gnostics were going around to the churches as telling the folks they needed the special knowledge they possessed in order to saved.
• The name Gnostics comes from the Greek words which means KNOWLEDGE.
• There were five basic tenants to Gnosticism.
o God is an impersonal force
o Jesus was a created being.
o Dualism. The Spiritual realm was good and the physical world was evil.
o Auto-salvation. This taught that JESUS and CHRIST were two different things. They said that Jesus by learning from the past ascended masters, allowed Him to the Christ, and that we too can be “Christs” that are divine and we can lead others to the same state.
o Reincarnation.
• This background will explain why Paul is going to such great lengths to encourage the church at Colossae concerning the salvation they have through Jesus, and that Jesus is all-sufficient for one’s salvation
• SLIDE #5
• Colossians 2:13 (HCSB) And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses.
• SLIDE #6
SERMON
I. Jesus will forgive your sins.
• Paul points something out in verse 13 that we cannot overlook. “And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh”
• Before Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we are dead in our sins.
• SLIDE #7
• Ephesians 2:12 (HCSB) At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
• When we commit our first sin, we are separated from God, we are dead in our sins. Our path, our future is eternal death, which is separation from God.
• Romans reminds us of what sin gives us.
• SLIDE #8
• Romans 6:23 (HCSB) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• When we chose to pursue a life of sin, our wages will be spiritual death, there is no getting around that fact. Because of the sin of Adam, we will all die physically, our own sin earns us spiritual death, or separation from God.
• The way we reverse the process is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. To put on Christ, and as verse 12 states, to be baptized into Jesus.
• SLIDE #9
• Colossians 2:12 (HCSB) Having been buried with Him in baptism, you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
• NO MATTER what you have done, God will forgive it, no sin is too big for Jesus to forgive.
• Verse 13 reminds us; He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses.
• Paul reminds us of something important in Romans 5:8
• SLIDE #10
• Romans 5:8 (HCSB) But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
• In the biblical sense, forgiveness has to do with God’s restoration of the relationship between Himself and man which was broken by man’s sin. Forgiveness does not always mean the suspension of consequences (robbed a bank, went to jail, became a Christian), but it means that the relationship with God is restored!
• We are now alive in Christ! You can be forgiven in Christ!
• What sin or burden from sin are you carrying along with you today? Give it to God through Jesus, experience forgiveness.
• God loves you, He is not looking to drop the hammer on you!
• Let’s turn to verse 14
• SLIDE #11
• Colossians 2:14 (HCSB) He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.
• SLIDE #12
II. Jesus will forget your sins.
• Sometimes when we deal with people, they will tell us that the forgive us, yet we know by their actions and attitude toward us they have not really forgiven us.
• SLIDE #13
• In verse 14, Paul opens up a great gift for us!
• Not only does Jesus forgive our sins, HE FORGETS THEM ALSO!
• SLIDE #14
• Psalm 103:12 (HCSB) As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
• Through Jesus, God erases the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us
• To erase indicates a total removal, to make totally ineffective.
• The certificate of debt is a translated from a phrase that means “A HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENT”, or an IOU, that was personally signed by the debtor, acknowledging his debt.
• Jesus erases the certificate of debt! Whose debt are you still holding on to?
• The idea of a divine accounting of man’s debts was familiar to the Judaism of the day. To what did it refer?
• This most likely refers to any code of conduct under which a man stood, but which he could not keep.
• For the Jew this would be the Law of Moses (Gal 3:10, 12). For Gentiles it would be the moral law, however understood (cf. Rom 2:12–15).
• The code of conduct, not perfectly obeyed, would have penalties. Ultimately the failure would be failure to obey God. (College Press NIV Commentary)
• The forgiveness that we enjoy in Christ is total: “all our sins” are forgiven (v. 13). The completeness and definitiveness of our forgiveness are the theme of v. 14, which Paul presents via two striking word pictures.
• Paul’s first word picture portrays a document that all human beings have signed, an “IOU,” in which we pledge complete allegiance to God. Our sins stand as conclusive evidence that we have failed to give God that allegiance, and so that document is “against us” and “condemns” us.
• But God has taken that document and wiped it clean; indeed, he has taken it completely out of the picture.
• He has, in fact, in a second word picture that both highlights the completeness of the removal and the means by which it was accomplished, “nailed it to the cross. (Pillar NT Commentary)
• Jesus forgives your sin and He nailed your IOU to the cross for all to see! In Christ your sins are forgiven forgotten!
• We are free in Christ! John 8:32 reminds us that the truth will set us free!
• In the context of the letter, the Gnostics were looking to enslave the people once again with a lie!
• Let’s look at verse 15!
• SLIDE #15
• Colossians 2:15 (HCSB) He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.
• SLIDE #16
III. Jesus completely conquers sin.
• Sin stand no chance against Jesus, sin is a vanquished opponent next to Jesus!
• Jesus disarmed those who stand against Him, He exposed the charade that sin is in control!
• The added words, “triumphed over them by Him,” expand this idea. The picture, quite familiar in the Roman world, is that of a triumphant general leading a parade of victory.
• The conqueror, riding at the front in his chariot, leads his troops through the streets of the city.
• Behind them trails a wretched company of vanquished kings, officers, and soldiers—the spoils of battle.
• Christ, in this picture, is the conquering general; the powers and authorities are the vanquished enemy displayed as the spoils of battle before the entire universe.
• To the casual observer the cross appears to be only an instrument of death, the symbol of Christ’s defeat; Paul represents it as Christ’s chariot of victory. (EBC)
• Jesus is leading the procession, and His vanquished opponent sin, along with its army are being dragged through the streets in ultimate defeat!
• Sin has NO power over you in Christ, you are more than conquerors!
• SLIDE #17
• Romans 8:37–39 (HCSB) — 37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, 39 height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
• In Christ you are a winner, you get sprinkles on your ice cream because sprinkles are for winners!
CONCLUSION
• Are you ready to experience true forgiveness, are you ready to enjoy victory over the slavery to sin?
• Today is the day to join the winning team of Jesus.
• Jesus forgives your sin, forgets your sin and vanquishes sin.
