I was recently on a youth group camp. A few weeks back I went with about 20 adults and 54 teenagers to Tathra. And it was great. We played putt-putt golf, went canoeing, played some games and we went to the beach. Our speaker gave five talks from Ephesians and the teenagers were lapping it up. Some had never read anything from Ephesians before, others thing clicked in their mind for the first time. I think I even witnessed a girl become a Christian right in front of my eyes. It was a great time away.
I go to drive the speaker to and from camp and in the car, we chatted a whole heap. One thing he told me which has stuck is that we should never assume that others know the Gospel, even people in church, especially people involved in church.
In my circles, we always talk about the Gospel and how important the Gospel is and that we should have Gospel focused, Gospel cantered lives and churches, but what is the Gospel? We use the word and sometimes through overuse or through lack of explanation of our jargon, we actually can’t define the Gospel.
In our passage, Paul is writing to the Colossians to encourage them in their faith, and one way he does this is to tell them to Gospel. He said in our reading “this is the gospel that you heard that has been proclaimed” (Col 1:23). So this makes my ear pick up. What is the Gospel? What was proclaimed to them?
In its basic format, the Gospel is an announcement, it is good news about Jesus. If you are going to talk about the Gospel you have to talk about Jesus[1]. In our passage, (and not from me trying to be clever) Paul gives us three R words to help us know what the Gospel is. He says we have been rescued from darkness (1:13), we have been redeemed by God (1:14) and we have been reconciled to God (1:20). Rescued. Redeemed. Reconciled.
Rescued from darkness
Verse 13 says God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…”So what does that mean? God has saved us from one kingdom to another. God has saved us from darkness and brought us into light (1:11). Salvation belongs to the Lord.
But if we are saved, if we are rescued by God, what are we rescued from?
We are told they were in a kingdom of darkness. This kingdom is not a physical kingdom, but one that is under spiritual darkness. It is a kingdom where people are enslaved to sin, where there are systemic power structures characterized by the forces of evil and judgement[2].
The Colossians were not the exception in this case, they hadn’t done some stand out evil to be in darkness. Their normal, natural behaviour was evil because their natural thinking and their hearts were evil. You might not like that, but that is the condition of everyone. No exception.
As you look around the world, we may see people as a mixture of good and bad[3]. We are all made in the image of God (Gen 1:28) and people can create great things and do good service to each other. But, at the same time, we are all prone to be selfish, greedy, dishonest and are easily angered. We all want our own way. We are all capable of good but so often we choose to do otherwise, and we ignore God.
The hard truth is that the state of anyone before God, apart from Christ, is utterly hopeless[4]. Just last weekend I got the classic question: “What about the innocent guy in Africa who hasn’t heard about Jesus, what happens to him?”. The first time I was asked this at the time I didn’t really know what to say, but working with teenagers I find you get this question all the time. Now, I know the answer is simple, the innocent guy in Africa who hasn’t heard of Jesus goes straight to heaven, no question. The only problem is that there is no innocent guy in Africa, he does not exist[5]. If there was, he would not need to hear the Gospel he would go to heaven because he would have no sin.
Apart from Jesus, everyone stands guilty before God. That is why we all need Jesus. This includes you, me, your neighbours, your family, your peers here. Everyone. No exceptions.
But the good news is, what the Gospel is, is that we have been rescued from darkness. We have been saved from our sinful hearts and minds and actions. We were dead in our sins (Col 2:13). We have been rescued. We didn’t do anything to save ourselves, we were in the dark and we couldn’t have found our way out ourselves. God did the rescuing. He took us from a kingdom of darkness to a new kingdom, a kingdom of light, the kingdom of Jesus. All who trust Jesus as their king are now living in His kingdom.
The Gospel is: Jesus has rescued us from darkness from which we couldn’t save ourselves. This is good news for those who believe.
Redeemed by God
Moving on in verse 14, we have our second "R "word. It looks at one aspect of how Jesus rescued us. It says in Jesus we have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. Being redeemed by God means that He has paid a price to rescue us.“Redeemed” talk is the talk of the marketplace. A transaction takes place, a price is paid for something. The cost of us being rescued, the price that was paid for our redemption was nothing less than Jesus’ death on the cross. He paid our debt with His blood.
Jesus redeems us from darkness by paying the price of what we deserved. We have been released from the bondage of sin and have been set free from the dark powers of this world. It is staggering to think that it would have been just for us not to receive salvation. God didn’t have to save anyone. But because of his great love for us, he sent his son, Jesus to be rejected, flogged, whipped, crucified and pierced. To be alone, tempted, tortured and to die, in our place, condemned. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18).
The Gospel is: Jesus has redeemed us by paying our price for us and that our sins have been forgiven. This is good news for those who believe.
Reconciled to God
Not only have we been rescued from darkness, not only have our sins forgiven because Jesus paid our debt for us, we have also been reconciled to God. Verse 21 and 22 says:Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusationBecause of Jesus, we are no longer separated from God we are brought near to Him. We now have peace with God, and God sees us as spotless, free form any guilt or shame.
It is one thing to be saved from your burning house by the firefighters and then left on the street, it is another thing for the firefighter to then invite you into their home to live with them. It is the same with God. Not only did He rescue us, but he didn't leave us on the sideline. He invites us into a relationship with Him. The one who saves you, wants to know you. Once we were enemies but now we are adopted into God’s family. We are considered pure and right - clean from all sin.
The Gospel is: Jesus has reconciled us to God, there is now no hostility between us and God. This is good news for all who believe.
This message is good news and we should rejoice and celebrate it. Believing that we have been rescued from darkness, redeemed by God and Reconciled to God will change our life here and for eternity. But not only that, this good news is too good not to share. I don't know if you notice, but if something good happens to you if you have good news to share, it increases your joy and others when you share it with someone. That is why few people go to the movies by themselves, and why people go out to dinner together. It is better when shared. If we want to increase our joy and others joys we will not keep this message to ourselves.
Let me pray.
[1] This was from one of Richard Coekin’s (2016) talks on Jonah from Katoomba Easter Convention, I forget which one
[2] Moo, Douglas J (2008), The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Pillar New Testament Commentary)
[3] Giles, Kevin (1992), Count Me In: A Confirmation Workbook for Young People, p23
[4] Platt, David (2012) Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions. (Together for the Gospel) (http://t4g.org/media/2012/05/divine-sovereignty-the-fuel-of-death-defying-missions-2)
[5] Platt, David in both Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions.(http://t4g.org/media/2012/05/divine-sovereignty-the-fuel-of-death-defying-missions-2) and Why People Don't Make Disciples (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZzhwbfcjK4)
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