We Serve The Same Savior - What Has Jesus Done? (Pt 2) Series

Sermon Details:

Series Title: We Serve the SAME God

Sermon Title: We Serve the SAME Savior! (Pt.2)

Sermon Text: Colossians 1:21-29 [ESV]

Introduction:

In our journey through this letter to the church in Colossae, we have learned how we are ALL on the same team and we have been called to serve… to get in the game!

Last week we took a look at how Paul describes our leader, our ‘coach’ if you will… He speak of WHO Jesus is! We discovered that Jesus IS our deliverer… we learned that Jesus is our creator and God… we also saw how Jesus is our LEADER… the cornerstone of our faith!

But what does that mean for us? I believe Paul lets us know in the verses that follow… and what Paul is doing is going beyond WHO Jesus is, and he is describing WHAT Jesus has done… Let’s look at those verses right now! [read Col 1:21-29 here – follow me]

Jesus Reconciles (v21-22)

Paul begins his description of WHAT Jesus has done by setting the stage… Paul reveals in v21 of where these believers were before they came to know Christ – they were LOST! This is where EVERYONE is who does not know Christ as Savior…Paul says:

21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

Alienated

Hostile

Alienated – outsider, shut out of fellowship – NOT WELCOME!

Hostile – against God, hateful and opposing to God… not necessarily on purpose, but could be a passive opposition to God, in other words, you simply do not acknowledge God in your life…

The results for NOT having God in your life are made clear by Paul… he tells us that they were doing evil deeds… what does he mean? doing evil deeds – is the natural result of not being a part of God or NOT acknowledging God in your life… it leads to selfish and evil deeds.

Isaiah wrote in Is 53:6 that…6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

When we stray, we are doing evil… it doesn’t have to be murder or other things we may consider to be ‘evil’…when we turn away from God or refuse to turn TO God… we are sinful & sinful = evil.

Paul sets the table with our situation before God and doing how we are evil deeds, but then in v22 he reveals WHAT Jesus does for our situation! Last week we saw WHO Jesus was as ‘deliverer’ now we see WHAT Jesus does as ‘deliverer’ -- he reconciles us to God!

v22 tells us…22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…

What Jesus does…

Reconciled [show v22 highlight #1 here] here Paul is going all the way back to the Garden where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world… the stain of sin was passed down through the blood line from Adam to ALL the world…

In Romans Paul tells us that we have ALL sinned… not just a few, but ALL of us! Our sin may be different than other people, but sin separates us from God. I want you to hear this… we are ALL born INTO sin because it is our very NATURE to sin or should I say that we are natural born sinners!

Paul says that we are reconciled by Jesus… the Greek Paul uses here means that we are brought back to a former state of harmony!

When we are reconciled…we are brought back to an innocent & pure state like that in the Garden after Creation.

When we are reconciled in Christ we are able to commune with God personally, just as Adam and Eve were able to in the cool of the evening in the Garden… We are also seen by God as ‘very good’ … just as He originally saw creation! THAT is what being reconciled to God means!

How Jesus does it…

Paul says reveals that Jesus accomplished reconciliation for us thru… his body of flesh by his death. [show v22 highlight #2 here]

This is Paul’s reference to Christ on the Cross. Jesus allowed himself to be crushed for our sake, his body was bloodied and killed so that we could know reconciliation to God!

Isaiah foretold about WHAT Jesus would come to do…

Isaiah 53:4-5 tells us:

4Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.