Colossians 1 (Part 2)

Make sure you have your Bibles open or maybe your electronic device with Colossians chapter 1. We're going to cover just two verses. And I thought about actually popping these into the study last week. But as I looked over those two verses, they just hit me with just the beauty, the majesty and the depth of what they convey. And I thought, you know what? I’ve got to take a whole week to do that. So, we're going to be looking at two verses from Colossians 1; that's verses 13 and 14. Here we go.

I think I could probably teach on those two verses for a month of Sundays, but let's pray. Let's see what the Lord has for us today. Heavenly Father, we pray that You would use this time. Whenever we dig into Your Word, it's a blessed time. And it's a time, Lord, that You are so gracious to pour out upon our hearts, a wealth of understanding, and we pray that today would be no different than any other time we delve into the Word. We pray that You would speak to us. We pray that You would minister grace to us, LORD. We pray that our hearts would be open to hear all that You desire to say. We ask it in Jesus’ precious Name, amen. Amen. Well, just two simple verses here today from Colossians chapter 1. The apostle Paul speaks to us here about what I consider to be a very profound and a very powerful work of God, whereby we are brought out of darkness and into the light of the kingdom of our Lord. And you'll notice there are two key words that are used here and they're both found in verse 13. And I love these: the two words are delivered and transferred. Did you like that? We have been delivered from darkness.

I want you to remember that guys. We've been delivered from darkness and then we have been transferred into a different kingdom; from one kingdom of darkness into another kingdom– the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son that God loves. I was thinking about this over the course of the last week and there's so much that we could really get into related to this topic. But I was reading John chapter 9 this last week as well and I realized that as I read through John chapter 9, it gives us a picture of what we want to talk about here, or think about, as it relates to what this passage in Colossians tells us, that we've been delivered from darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light. I'm going to have you do something I don't normally do when I'm teaching through a passage. I'm going to have you go to another book of the Bible. I'm going to have you go to John chapter 9. If you're on your device or in your Bible, flip over to John chapter 9, and we're going to spend some time there. And it's such a cool chapter here because it is a depiction of these two verses in Colossians. I mean, I couldn't have come up with a better example or illustration of what Paul is saying to the Colossians than what is happening in this chapter of John 9. Because what's happening here is the story of the blind beggar whom Jesus touches and heals, and so we're going to take a look at it. If you're at John 9, we're going to read through the whole chapter because it's all one story and then we're going to come back and we're going to– what we're going to do, I'll just tell you ahead of time, we're going to pick out of this chapter seven snapshots. So, get out your “camera,” right? We're going to take snapshots (Pastor raises his hands and mimics taking a picture) from this chapter and we're going to look at seven of them and these snapshots are pictures of what Paul is saying in Colossians 1, 13 and 14. Here we go.

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--- 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. What an incredible chapter in the Bible. John chapter 9 is all about blindness because it begins with this simple single man who is sitting beside the road, begging as people are watching by, walking by rather and as, as Jesus and His disciples pass by, His disciples are motivated to ask Jesus a question about this blind man. They wanted to know who sinned. Was it this man or was it his parents? And you'll notice by their question that they assumed that his blindness was the result of some sinful act which was either committed by his parents or the man. And in their mind that was the only thing, the only options, that were available. Sin had to be the cause. But Jesus corrected their mistaken notion in verse three by saying, and this is important, it wasn't a sin issue here. This was not caused by the man's sin. It was not caused by his parents’ sin. But what I want you to see here is– I want you to see what Jesus did say concerning the man's blindness. He said, ...but that the works of God might be displayed in him. All right. Did you catch that? Because that's really important. He said that the man's blindness was allowed by God so that the works of God might be displayed in him. And by works of God, I believe Jesus is talking about how God works in people's lives, in everyone's life who comes to Him to bring us from blindness, or if you will darkness, into a place of spiritual sight. In other words, from darkness to light. And this blind man is a picture to all of us in several ways. And as I said, we're going to bring out seven different snapshots from this story here in John 9 concerning how God works in the lives of people. And you're going to see yourself in these pictures as well here. So let's run through them. The first snapshot is found in verse 1, and it says, As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. Now, this is not a man who'd been blinded by any other means than he was born that way. He was born with that condition. And that provides us with our first snapshot. I'm going to put these, by the way, up on the screen for you, so that you can keep notes and write them down. Picture number one. We are born spiritually blind and unable to “see.” And this is a beautiful picture because you see the Bible makes it clear that all of us were born with spiritual blindness. We were born into darkness, if you will. Psalm 51;5 (NIV - 1984) Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Let me show you a passage from Psalms 51,

David is making a theological statement here. He's not saying that my mom and dad weren't married at the time and I was an illegitimate child. That's not what he's saying. He's saying I was sinful from the time I was born just like everybody else. David is making a statement that is pictured in this blind beggar. He was blind from birth. And you know, this is a hard truth for some people to accept: the idea that we were born into darkness. We don't like to say, I'm blind. I'm a blind person. I can't really see life. I can't really understand life because I can't see it. In fact, today it's gotten very popular to use, as an excuse, I was born that way. I was born this way. This thing that I'm doing in my life, whichever way, however I'm living; I was born this way. And what people do is they use that as --- an excuse to say it's natural and it is therefore right that I live this way. So, this is just something that's gotten very popular in our culture: I was born that way. People will even write me from time to time and say, “Is this a sin if someone was born that way?” I come back to him and I say, “I was born with all kinds of sinful inclinations, all kinds of them. My inclination to have a filthy mouth; I was born that way. My inclination to have impure thoughts; I was born that way. What if somebody was born with a tendency toward violence? Are we going to then say it's okay because he was born that way?” We were born into blindness and into darkness and this blind beggar is a picture of that. But I want you to notice in the wording here that Jesus uses to describe this condition. To get this you need to hear in John 9– you need to skip all the way down to verse 39, almost to the end of the chapter. Look what Jesus says. He says, “For judgment I came into this world, so that the blind will see.” Now the word judgment there speaks of pronouncing a judgment, which is a way of saying, pronouncing a truth. I came, Jesus said, to make a pronouncement and that pronouncement is this: You are all blind. And you've been blind from birth. Jesus came to pronounce the human race blind from birth. And you know, blindness carries with it obvious implications. Not the least of which is that you can't see– and you are surrounded by darkness. In other words, you're literally held by darkness. Dominated, if you will, by darkness. And we can't free ourselves from that darkness. No matter how hard we try. Our eyes are closed from birth and because they're closed, because they're born closed, our hearts are also full of darkness. Let me show you what Jesus said. He described this in Matthew chapter 6.

Here's what He said, ... if your eyes are bad, and all of our eyes are bad from birth. He says, then your whole body will be full of darkness. In other words, your whole being. If then the light within you is dark or is actually darkness, how great is that darkness! And that Christians, is our spiritual condition. We are born into darkness and how terrible it is to live in that darkness. And those of us who have been in Christ for a while, we forget sometimes what it was like to live in that perpetual darkness. Do you remember what Paul said about how we battle? Look at this from Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12.

(We don't wrestle against people, do we? No.) …we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. (What are we wrestling against? We're wrestling) against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness... You see, the darkness is in us when we are born and the darkness is all around us in the world, and that is what we wrestle with after we come to know Jesus Christ. But just as Jesus came to make a judgment and to make a declarative statement about our spiritual blindness, you'll notice He also makes a similar declarative statement about the solution to our blindness. Look at verses 4 and 5 here from John 9. He says, We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. And then look at verse five. I love this. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. This is our second snapshot that we'll put on the screen here for you. And that is Jesus is the One who opens the eyes of the blind.

Check out this passage from Psalm chapter 146, verse 8.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. How does He do that? How does Jesus open up the eyes of the blind? You could say I know exactly how He does it. He makes mud. He spits on the dirt, makes mud, puts it on your eyes. Now that was physical blindness. How does Jesus bring spiritual light and sight to us and bring us out of the darkness? Did you notice what He said there in verse 5? Jesus said, I am the light of the world. I am the light. Jesus is the One who dispels darkness. He doesn't just dispel darkness by what He does; He is the means by which darkness is dispelled because He is the light. How do you bring the light into your life? It's a person. It's Jesus. Look at verse 6 with me here in John 9.

Again, this isn't a recipe for healing people with physical blindness. What Jesus is doing here is He's showing us something. Notice Jesus didn't send this blind man to a doctor. Notice Jesus didn't send him to the high priest. Jesus dealt with the man's blindness Himself. And He showed by His actions here that He's the One. He's the One who gives us real sight. And then we see something interesting in verse 7, and this is the next picture.

What we're seeing here is what is picture number three for us, which we put up on the screen for you, and that is our response of faith.

Salvation is a free gift and the sight that we are given with that salvation, that's a free gift. But you know what, we still have to respond to it. We still have to respond. And what we're seeing in this next snapshot from John chapter 9 is a beautiful picture of responding by faith. We see it in this man going and washing in the pool of Siloam. He didn't have to do that. The man could have said, I'm not going to go wash. Or he could have just grabbed his shirt and just started wiping the mud out of his eyes and said, knock it off; don't do that again. I'm blind. I've been blind and I'm going to stay blind. But he did what he was told. He responded by faith. And it's a beautiful picture. And we learn from this that salvation is great and it truly is good news, but hearing about it just isn't enough. We have to respond. We have to exercise our faith to believe. Remember what Paul said to the Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.

But it still has an element of responsibility for you, and that is through faith we respond. Now for the next picture. We look at verse eight. Read with me there in John 9.

Some said, yeah, I think so, and the others said no, it's not. He looks kind of like that guy, but it's not him. The man himself said yeah, it's me! I am the man.” And this is where we begin to see the result of God's redemptive work in our lives; that transformation of our life to the point where some people who used to know us don't even recognize us anymore because of what has happened in us. Our eyes have been opened. Here's picture number four: We are made a new creation. Check this out from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17:

Isn't that good news? Oh man, that's good news! We are a new creation. And I'm so delighted when I read that verse. Now, I have to admit to you, I wish that this wonderful new creation that Christ has done in us would forever take hold with no possible threat of me ever turning back and going back to the darkness or living that life of the darkness. But the fact of the matter is, the old man, the old me is still there under the surface and he's constantly trying to assert himself. The old sinful nature is constantly trying to take control, right?

Christians, particularly new Christians, will write to me from time to time and say, Pastor Paul I gave my life to Jesus, and I love Him with all my heart, but why do I keep sinning? And they're truly distressed, and that is a sign by the way, of their salvation, that they're distressed over their sin. They're wondering why. And the answer is because the old man will reassert himself if we're not careful. Yes, you are a new creation. Yes, God has brought you into the light. He has taken the blinders off, and you can now see. But that doesn't mean you can't walk back to the pigsty and wallow in the mud with the pigs, because you can. You're free to do that. The reason we sin, Christians, is because we choose to. So that's why Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus and he said to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life (Ephesians 4:22). That's something that we have to do constantly. We've got to put off the old self. We come to the fifth picture and this one is now seen and started starting here in verse 25, where the blind man is now confessing to the Pharisees. He says, one thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see, and this is picture number five. We are given spiritual insight. And I love how quickly we see this man growing in his newfound faith and his ability to see. And he just recites this very simple testimony to the Pharisees, I was blind, but now I see. Now I can see, and you know that's pretty simple, but it's so… and sometimes it's all we know for sure. What happened to you? I was blind and now I can see. You know what? It's enough. It’s enough. It's enough to say, I was blind and now I can see.

What really amazes me is how quickly this man with this newfound sight can kind of zero in on what is genuine and what is not, because as you notice here, the Pharisees admitted to him, as the conversation goes on, they admitted to him, they didn't even know where Jesus was from. They said we're disciples of Moses. And as for this Jesus guy, we don't even know where He's from. I love the response of the formerly blind man. I'll paraphrase it for you– He says, okay, now that is interesting. Here you are Pharisees. You are the religious leaders of Israel. And you got a guy walking around in your country, healing blind people, doing what is otherwise impossible for people to do, healing people born blind, and you don't know where He's from? Oh, that is incredible! Isn't that something? You see, that's far more than just a quick-witted statement. This formerly blind man, with his newfound spiritual vision, is actually cutting through the duplicity and the stubborn refusal to believe of these religious leaders. And this man who just received his sight sees better than people who've had their sight all their lives. He knows what he's up against. He sees the duplicity of these religious leaders and he exposes it. Why– How? Because he's been given spiritual insight. He's been given more than just physical sight. And you know, that's what happens when Jesus opens our eyes. We're given the ability to see things that we couldn't see before. We're given the ability to see with new eyes. Suddenly we come out from the darkness and into the light. Let me show you a passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that amazing? Through spiritual vision– by bringing us out of darkness and into the light, God has given us the light of the knowledge of God. He has shared His knowledge with us. And it's amazing! And then we come to picture number six of our redemption seen in the life of this blind man. Speaking boldly and with insight to the religious leaders, we read this in verse 34. It says, To this they replied, You were steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us? And they threw him out. And this is picture

--- number six we put on the screen for you. And that is the simple picture that we're going to be persecuted by those who refuse to believe. This is the next snapshot that we get of the implications of what it is to be brought into the light, to be given spiritual vision. And this whole idea of being persecuted– this probably isn't a promise from God’s Word that you're going to post on your fridge and make your memory verse for the week. But it's a reality of who we are and what we have become through the mercy of God. Can I show you a promise that was made to us in John 15? This is a promise, but it says,

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are now no longer of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. I also love what Peter said on this subject. I love this. 1 Peter chapter 4.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Listen, he says, If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. The blind beggar was insulted by the Pharisees, (Pastor scowls as he repeats their words.) You were steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us? That man received a blessing right then and there. And so do we when we are spoken to like that, when we are persecuted because God has taken us out of this world and made us part of His kingdom. Remember what Jesus said, hey, if you were of this world, the world would love you. They'd love you. They’d love you because they love their own. They just don't love people that aren't their own and you are not them. You do not belong to them anymore. And that brings us to the seventh and the final picture from John chapter 9 here. Reading again at verse 35, it says,

What we're seeing here is this now redeemed man, this man whose eyes have been opened by the Savior is led now to worship at the feet of the One who changed his life. And this is picture number seven that we put on the screen for you. We now “see” that Jesus is worthy of our worship. ---

I had an interesting note from someone a couple of weeks ago, and that person had been asked a question by someone and they were now writing to me because they didn't know how to respond. And the question was, is God an egomaniac? Interesting question, isn't it? Is God an egomaniac? In other words, He wants our worship. Doesn't that prove that God is an egomaniac? I understand why somebody would ask the question. It's because their eyes haven't been opened. Their eyes– they're still in darkness. And that's why they ask the question. But once you and I have our eyes opened, and we begin to see things that we've never seen before, one of the things that we see is the beauty, and the majesty, and the glory of the God who saved us and opened our eyes. And it is a very small thing for you and I to drop to our knees and to say, I worship You, LORD my God, I worship You, which is just what we see this formerly blind man doing here in John chapter 9. Because when our eyes are open, we can't help but see Him as He is. We see the One now finally who is worthy of our praise. We see the One who is worthy of our obedience. We finally see the One who is worthy of our very lives. Our every breath. And that brings us to Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14 on the screen. It says,

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I love this passage. Just like the blind man in John 9, we have been delivered; delivered from darkness, but not just darkness from the domain of darkness, or as the NIV says, the dominion of darkness. I looked up that word in the Greek, that word that is translated domain or dominion. I found several different words in the English that this word can be translated into. They give us some interesting kind of dynamic understanding of what we've been delivered from. For example, we've been delivered from the authority of darkness. That's actually one of the words that is most translated from this Greek word. We've been delivered from the control of darkness. We've been delivered from, as we have already said, the dominion. We've been delivered from the jurisdiction of darkness. We've been delivered from the freedom of darkness; the freedom of darkness to hold you in darkness. We've been delivered from the power of darkness, and we've been delivered from the right of darkness to hold on to your life. Those words that I just gave you are all legitimate English synonyms for this one Greek word. Isn't that fascinating? And they really give us a kind of a dynamic view of how we've been delivered from darkness. You know, we don't often think about the darkness having a right to control us, but it did. The darkness had a right to control. We gave it that right through our sin. That's why Paul said, Don't give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27). We give darkness a foothold through our sin to hang on to us; to control us. But Jesus has delivered us from the right of darkness to control our lives. And what does it go on to say here in that passage in Colossians? We have been transferred to a new dominion; to a new control, if you will. That's what Paul says, He has delivered us. He has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. In other words, there's a new ruler in our lives. We have a new ruler. In Him we have redemption. We have forgiveness of sins. Under the old ruler of darkness, we had slavery. We had a curse. Now we have redemption. Now we have forgiveness. Wow. I want to end with one final passage from 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 9. I love this.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.