1. Title: It’s a Miracle!
2. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
3. Introduction:
a. Read: Colossians 1:12-14
b. Prayer:
c. We are continuing our sermon series from the book of Colossians. So far we have applied the gospel to vision, mission and ministry, our parenting (Father Knows Best), our heavenly hope (This is not my home), and last week (by Pastor Simpkins) our fruitfulness as Christians as contrasted with the lusts of the flesh (Living Worth of the Lord). With these messages so far we have learned that there is good news and bad news.
i. The bad news is that even as Christians our hearts our deceptive and desperately wicked. Is there any wonder that our attitudes and actions are a mixture of duplicity and sincerity, lusts of the flesh and fruit of the spirit, sunshine and rain? These things ought not to be, this flies in the face of reason and Christian living, diminishes our witness, damages our relationships, and discredits God’s person, and purposes. But thank God that after every storm there is a rainbow.
ii. With this rainbow comes good news. It is favorable to be struggling with sin in your life because only Christians wage this war. Only Christians have the opportunity to fight and win this war, although there are times that a particular battle is lost. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. So if you are in a battle against sin, have hope that this is evidence of God’s grace in your life. The simple fact that you are aware of your own sinfulness should give you hope that the Spirit is actively working to root this sin completely out of your life. But if you are not waging a war against sin it is either because you’re in heaven, or you’re in denial or you’re still dead in your sin. For those of us on this side of eternity, are greatest need is for a Savior.
d. There is one more distinguishing mark of the life that is fully pleasing to the Savior which we only touched on briefly, and which we’ll give all our attention to this morning. That was the ongoing practice of giving thanks to the Father; thankfulness for salvation.
e. God shows us the type of thanksgiving worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to Him. Not just any thanksgiving will do. We are to give thanks with Joy.
i. What does it not look like?
1. Methodology, I’m a God thanking machine (2x)
a. Not by our willpower but by His willpower
b. Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit thus says the Lord.
2. Manners, thank you, thank you, thank you
a. Not just nice mindless good manners like Gomer Pyle
b. Illustration: Saluting out of coercion not gladness
c. Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and with all your mind.
3. Misguided Emotionalism: tip-toes thru the tulips
a. Not like the careful but misguided tree-hugging Tina Tim
b. Heaven and earth, you’re the jury. Listen to God’s case: "I had children and raised them well, and they turned on me. The ox knows who’s boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not Israel. My people don’t know up from down. Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals— My people have walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back.
c. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
ii. What does joyful thankfulness look like?
1. It’s more than good methods and good manners.
2. It’s altogether different than emotional appeal and willpower.
3. It’s giving thanks being grateful with your whole being, (mind, will, and emotions) with your whole heart because you realize what a miracle it is that you are saved at all. (x2)
4. Title: It’s a Miracle
a. Do you see your salvation and even the living out your salvation (which the Bible calls sanctification) a miracle or something else?
b. I’ll ask a series of 21 questions in which you may respond accordingly.
i. Is your salvation a mirage or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-unreal
ii. Is your salvation a mistake or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-error
iii. Is your salvation a maneuver or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-conspiracy
iv. Is your salvation a manipulation or a miracle? (Its’ a Miracle)-human
v. Is your salvation a guarantee or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-birthright
vi. Is your salvation a wishable or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-unattainable
vii. Is your salvation a mockery or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-contempt
viii. Is your salvation meritable or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-earnable
ix. Is your salvation a masquerade or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-Pretense
x. Is your salvation mundane or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-routine
xi. Is your salvation perfunctory or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-habitual
xii. Is your salvation monotonous or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-boredom
xiii. Is your salvation mediocre or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-passionless
xiv. Is your salvation crippled by distractions or is it a miracle? (IAM)-focus
xv. Is your salvation mendaciousness or a miracle? (IAM)-insincerity
xvi. Is you salvation guilt-laden or is it a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-punitive
xvii. Is your salvation minor or is it a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-trivial
xviii. Is your salvation a menace or a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-nuisance
xix. Is your salvation an addendum or a miracle? (IAM)-attachment
xx. Is your salvation irrelevant or a miracle? (IAM)-makes no difference
xxi. Is your salvation comatose or is it a miracle? (It’s a Miracle)-dead
c. Miracle a definition:
i. A miracle is an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause. Such an effect or event manifesting is considered as a work of God.
ii. A miracle is an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God whereby one force counteracts another such as when a vital force keeps the chemical laws of matter in abeyance. Muscular force can control the action of physical force; for example, when a person raises a weight from the ground, the law of gravity is neither suspended nor violated, but counteracted by a stronger force. God is no doubt the stronger force.
iii. There appears to be nothing as irritable to the critical mind as events which defy explanation, especially if a non-supernatural explanation is what’s being sought. However, if we truly want to determine whether or not a specific event (be it miraculous or non-miraculous) did in fact occur, the relevant question to ask would not be “Can it happen?” but rather “Did it happen?” Now, if the evidence proves that the event did indeed take place, the rational thing to do would be to go along with the evidence even though the event itself continues to stubbornly resist any sort of human explanation. Finally, anyone who believes that an all-powerful God brought the universe into existence should find no difficulty believing that God can perform miracles within His own creation—and remember the greatest “miracle” of all, which is the transformation that happens in a person’s life when Jesus Christ becomes the Lord and Savior of their lives.
5. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
a. So our giving thanks to God is to spring from joy, from feelings of happiness or great pleasure about what God has done. Giving thanks to the Father is not to be merely a duty that we perform but a pleasure that we express.
b. Do you find yourself more aware of your own unworthiness rather than God’s grace at the cross? Are you someone who’s consistently joyful and continually aware that “the joy of the LORD is your strength”? Or do you normally appear to others to be someone who’s burdened, busy, easily bothered, who doesn’t like to be interrupted?
c. And if you are joyous, what is the source of that joy? Do you derive your joy from possessions, popularity, power, position, positive-thinking, pursuit of spiritual powers, preoccupations with worldly passions, passions for the novel idea, and or place to much value on emotionalism rather than on the glories found at the cross alone?
6. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
7. As we examine this text we’ll address these three questions:
a. What happened / what did we contribute to what happened?
b. What change has taken place?
c. How did it happen?
Transition: If our giving thanks are functional, perfunctory, ho-hum, half-heartedness, and joyless, it is because we have ceased pondering the specifics of just what God has done for us in salvation at the cross.
8. What happened?
a. God saved sinners.
i. The letter is addressed to and describes Christians whom God had saved on account of His mercy, grace, love, through the sacrifice of Christ on that tree, and the transformational power of the Holy Spirit.
1. …holy and faithful brothers and sisters…(vs.2)
2. …heard of your faith in Christ Jesus…(vs. 4)
3. …heard of…the love you have for all the saints…(vs.4)
4. …faith and love that spring from…hope…(vs.5)
5. …the hope that is stored up for you in heaven…(vs. 5)
6. …this gospel is bearing fruit and growing…(vs. 6)
7. …understood God’s grace in all its truth…(vs. 6)
8. …your love in the Spirit…(vs. 8)
9. …you may live a life worthy of the Lord…(vs. 10)
10. …qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light…(vs.12)
11. …rescued us from the dominion of darkness…(vs. 13)
12. …brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…(vs. 13)
13. ...we have redemption…(vs. 14)
14. …we have…forgiveness of sins…(vs. 14)
15. …all over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and growing…(vs. 6)
ii. There are 14 references in the first 14 verses that make it plain that Paul is talking about people who have become Christians.
1. 10 references use the 3rd person plural pronoun “you,” referring primarily to the specific believers in Colossae.
2. 5 references (vv. 6, 13-14) use the 1st person plural pronoun “we,” inferring that God not only saved sinners (Colossians) then but God saves sinners (WGD) today.
Transition: The real meaning of the cross…save His own enemies—a rebellious humanity.
9. What did we contribute? We do not contribute anything to our salvation except our need for it. (Only in this since are we qualified to be saved. In all actuality we are not only unqualified to be saved, but we are disqualified to stay saved because of our sinfulness.) The only thing we contribute to our salvation is our need for it.
a. We grieve our heavenly Father with our sin.
i. Sin is cosmic treason: our sin is an assault on the majesty and sovereign rule of God.
1. When I indulge in any of the so-called acceptable sins, I am not only despising God’s law but, at the same time, I am despising God Himself.
2. When we think of our sin as rebellion against God’s sovereign authority and a despising of both His law and His person, we are viewing God in His rightful role as our ruler and judge.
ii. Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer:
1. An expression covering anything from minor offenses resulting in a reprimand to major ones requiring a court martial. This expression is more than description of aberrant behavior: it was a statement that the conduct is inconsistent with that expected of a military officer. The officer so described had failed to live up to his responsibility to act as an officer should act.
2. Perhaps, we might do well to adopt a similar expression for believers: “conduct unbecoming a saint.” The Bible has a word for this. It’s sin. Just as “conduct unbecoming an officer” covers a wide range of misconduct, so the word sin covers a wide range of misbehavior. It covers everything from gossip to adultery, from impatience to murder. Obviously, there are degrees of seriousness of sin. In the final analysis, sin is sin. If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all. It is conduct unbecoming a saint.
iii. Sin is a spiritual and moral malignancy.
1. Left unchecked, it can spread throughout our entire inner being and contaminate every area of our lives.
2. Even worse, it often will “metastasize” from us into the lives of other believers around us.
3. Sin is vile, ugly, odious, malignant, pestilent, pernicious, hideous, spiteful, poisonous, virulent, villainous, abominable, and deadly. Sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful.
4. To tolerate sins in our spiritual lives is as dangerous as to tolerate cancer in our bodies.
Transition: we not only grieve God but we also presume upon His grace.
b. We also presume on His grace.
i. The deceitfulness of sin will suggest to us that our little sins don’t matter because God has forgiven them.
ii. God never tolerates sin; He judges sin.
iii. Shall we presume on God’s grace by tolerating in ourselves the very sin that nailed Christ to the cross?
iv. Who is the worse sinner you know? Are you more aware of your own sin or those sins of others? Because of God’s amazingly gracious heart toward those who thoroughly deserve only His wrath, He both planned for and provided this mediator to resolve the divine dilemma—a mediator who, through His blood, would accomplish a unique assignment utterly unlike any other work of mediation. In the mystery of His mercy, God—the innocent, offended party—offers up to death His own Son, to satisfy His righteous wrath and save the guilty party from it.
Transition: our need for salvation coupled with God’s grace saves us.
c. The more absorbed I am in the gospel, the more grateful I become.
i. The gospel can cultivate within me a richer gratitude than my situation dictates as I view life’s blessings like water in a drinking cup.
ii. I could discontentedly focus on the half of the cup that seems empty, or I could gratefully focus on the half that is full.
iii. The gospel reminds me first that what I actually deserve from God is a full cup churning with the torments of His wrath.
1. This is the cup that would be mine to drink if I were given what I deserve each day.
2. With this understanding in mind, I see that to be handed a completely empty cup form God would be cause enough for infinite gratitude.
3. If there were merely the tiniest drop of blessing contained in that otherwise empty cup, I should be blown away by the unbelievable kindness of God toward me.
4. That God, in fact, has given me a cup of salvation of salvation that is full of “every spiritual blessing in Christ,” and this without the slightest admixture of wrath, leaves me truly dumbfounded with inexpressible joy.
5. As for any specific earthly circumstances of plenty or want, I can see them always as infinite improvement on the hell I deserve.
iv. When I look at any circumstances that God apportions me, I am grateful for…
1. …the wrath I am not receiving in that moment (the empty part of the cup never looked so good!).
2. …the blessings that are given to me instead of His wrath. (Life’s blessings, however small, always appear exceedingly precious when viewed against the backdrop of the wrath I deserve.)
v. This two-layered gratitude…
1. …disposes my heart to give thanks in all things and it also
2. …. lends a certain intensity to my giving thanks.
3. Such a gospel-generated gratitude
a. Glorifies God,
b. Contributes to peace of mind, and
c. Keeps my foot from the path of foolishness and ruin.
d. And the reason this is a cause for joy and thanksgiving is this. It means that if you are a believer, God is more committed to your good than you may realize. He is not going to be prevented by your sin from doing good to you. This knowledge will protect you and bring you joy, especially on those days when you are very aware of your sin, and you wonder if God isn’t having second thoughts about his relationship with you.
Transition: The only thing we have contributed to having a right relationship with God is our sinfulness and we still are saved. Now that is a real miracle.
a. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
b. God Saves Sinners, and I am the worst sinner I know, yet I’m saved. Now that’s the best miracle ever!
c. And…
Transition: Those who take their sins seriously rejoice in Christ’s cross gratefully.
10. What change has taken place? Salvation is a change of kingdoms. And here is one reason why this truth is a cause for joyful thanksgiving if we embrace it. It’s in knowing the difference between what you’ve been saved from and what you’ve been saved to that we begin to appreciate and become affected by the infinite mercy of God’s deliverance.
a. You have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
b. If we’ve only been rescued from a boring life into a somewhat less boring life, then God’s grace and salvation don’t seem worth getting excited about or thanking him for it.
c. It isn’t the person who thinks they were never captive who appreciates the freedom Christ gives. It’s the person who sees from the word of God how utterly trapped they were in the grip of sin and Satan. That’s the person who can sing the words of this hymn with joy:
i. Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth
and followed thee. (From the hymn And Can It Be?)
ii. We just can’t sing that with joy if we don’t know what kingdom we came from and what kingdom we’re now in. We have to embrace the truth that we were imprisoned in the kingdom of darkness and headed for judgment because of the evil of our sin, or else the promises of the inheritance of the saints will appear to us to be something we deserved. And if we deserve it, then there’s no reason to give thanks. But remembering what we’ve been delivered from makes the promises of our inheritance that much more sweet, and it will lead to giving thanks with joy. Salvation is a change of kingdoms, and that’s reason for giving thanks to the Father with joy.
v. Mohawk Trail illustration: change of kingdoms
c. So we see that Paul is talking about joyfulness for God’s salvation. This is more than good morals, good manners, and right feelings it is possessing, expressing and living in such a joyful or grateful way because of your keen awareness of what God has saved you from, saved you to, and how and why He saved you.
d. But the good work he began in you, he will finish. He has pursued you in your sin and with his everlasting Fatherly love, and by his grace he has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints.
i. I am amazed by the power of the gospel over and over, and have increased in my own love for the Savior. I can’t believe that I have been saved from what I deserve.
ii. Amazed by the power of the gospel, over and over—can you say these words about your own experience as well? Do you continue to find your salvation an incredible miracle as you recall the judgment you genuinely deserve?
iii. If not…what can bring about a change? What is it that can make the gospel of God and His grace more deeply and consistently amazing to us? In our busy lives, how can we more often be gripped by gratitude and enflamed in passion for the Savior…and cast off lukewarmness and dullness in our spiritual experience?
1. The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us—John Stott.
2. Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace.
10. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
a. God Saves Sinners, and I am the worst sinner I know.
b. Salvation is a Change of Kingdoms, I once was (blind, lost) but not I’m (see, found). Now that’s miraculous!
c. So…
11. How did this happen?
12. Salvation is only in Christ.
a. Verse 14 says this: In whom [that is, in Jesus the beloved Son] we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
i. The meaning of redemption is this: it is deliverance from a state of captivity, from slavery or from a death sentence through the payment of a ransom. Redemption is about deliverance. It’s about a deliverer coming in to rescue captives by paying the price necessary to free them.
ii. And according to Paul, we have redemption in Christ. He is the deliverer who has paid the ransom required for our deliverance. The ransom he paid was to satisfy God’s justice for our sin by taking the blame for our sins, and receiving in himself God’s judgment toward us on the cross.
iii. It is through his death in our place that we receive forgiveness of sins, which is the removal of our sin as a barrier to our entering God’s kingdom. You see, it would be unjust for God to give us an inheritance if we were still counted guilty of our sin, still counted unclean. God allows no unclean thing to ever enter the heavenly city. And it would be unjust for God to deliver us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son if the justice required for our sin had not been carried out. Our sin must be addressed; our sin must be forgiven and removed as a barrier in order for us to have salvation. And in Christ that barrier is removed. Through faith we become joined to Christ in such a way that his perfect record of blameless obedience counts as our record of blamelessness, and his wrath-bearing death for sin counts as our death for our sins.
iv. Summary: and so, in Christ, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and we are delivered from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son where he ever rules us for our good.
b. And that is reason for giving thanks to God with reverent joy, especially considering what it cost both the Father and the Son to do this for us.
i. Jonathan Edwards wrote this to help us grasp something of the sacrifice the Father and Son made in delivering us. Regarding Jesus’ suffering God’s wrath on the cross, he said:
Christ’s knowledge of the glory of the Father, and his love to the Father, and the sense and experience he had of the worth of his Father’s love to him, made the withholding …of his Father’s love as terrible to him… This caused Christ to cry out… “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was infinitely terrible to Christ. (Quoted in J.I. Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Crossway, 2007), pg. 95.)
ii. Such was the cost for our deliverance. We need no greater proof than this of God’s commitment to saving all those who will put faith in Christ. For he would never inflict such a cost on his Son, nor would the Son have willingly paid it, if he did not desire with all his heart and soul to save us, and guarantee that we would receive our inheritance in his presence.
13. Big Idea: We can be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
a. God Saves Sinners.
b. Salvation is a Change of Kingdoms.
c. Salvation is only in Christ. I have been rescued. My sins have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Halleluiah, can’t you see what an incredible miracle it really is that I am saved at all?
14. CONCLUSION
a. God saves sinners. Salvation is a change of kingdoms. Salvation is only in Christ.
b. These are the truths that will create joy if we meditate on them regularly. And it is giving thanks with joy for these things that is living in a manner worthy of the Lord. It is fully pleasing to him that we should be joyful and thankful for these things.
c. Are you overwhelmed with your unworthiness because of the sin in your life or are you captivated with joy in His grace at the cross?
d. If you’re centering your life on the gospel particularly the cross then you’ll be captured by joy.
e. If you’re saved it truly is a miracle so be captivated by joy rather than captured by unworthiness.
f. Complete the tear-out response section and give to ushers.
15. BENEDICTION: Let the cross always be the treasure of your heart, your best and highest thought…and your passionate preoccupation.
