7. Your Testimony – Jesus Bids Us Shine (5)
Hymns: RHC 300 The Cleansing Wave 100 He Lifted Me 96 He Keeps Me Singing
Colossians 1:19-23
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Jesus Bids Us Shine (5)
OUTLINE
In Your Testimony – Jesus Bids Us Shine (Col. 1:9-23)
- Glowing For Jesus (v9-14)
- In Knowledge (v9 cf. 15-23)
- In Fruitfulness (v10)
- In Testimony (v11)
- In Gratitude (v12-14)
- Grounded in Him (v15-23)
- He is God (v15)
- He is Creator (v16-17)
- He is the Head of the Church – The Pre-eminence (v18)
- He is Saviour (v19-22)
- He is the Good News (v23)
Continue…
- Grounded In Him (v15-23)
- He is Saviour (v19-22)
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Jesus is God. Jesus testified this truth and His disciple having seen Him testified of His Deity in John 16:25-30 (KJV) These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Jesus further testified before His passion and glorification in John 17:1-18 (KJV) These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
God’s peace brings peace to the home, it enables a drunkard to forsake his drink, a smoker his cigarette, a sinner his indulgences.
The Drunkard’s Child
My father is a drunkard,
My mother she is dead,
And I am just an orphan child—
No place to lay my head.
All through this world I wander,
They drive me from their door;
Someday I’ll find a welcome
On Heaven’s golden shore.
Now, if to me you’ll listen,
I’ll tell you a story sad
How drinking rum and the gambling “hell,”
Has stole away my dad.
My mother is in Heaven
Where God and the angels smile.
And now I know she’s watching
Her lonely orphan child.
We all were once so happy
And had a happy home,
Till dad he went to drinking rum,
And then he gambled some.
He left my darling mother,
She died of a broken heart;
And as I tell my story,
I see your teardrops start.
Don’t weep for me and mother,
Although I know it’s sad,
But try and get someone to cheer
And save poor lonely dad.
I’m awful cold and hungry—
He closed his eyes and sighed,
And those who heard his story
Knew the orphan child had died.
—Author Unknown[1]
This it the sad picture of the misery of sin in this world! Paul is telling us to remember our desperate situation before God saved us.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
The gospel has the power to transform a sinner to a saint! Cause wickedness, a wicked heart to be transformed, cleansed.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ can wash away our sins. This orphan together with his mother knew God. Only his father was lost in sin and will not repent. It is sad. But for all who will repent, there is hope!
Ephesians 2:14 For he is our peace…
Jesus Christ is our peace. Through Him, we receive true peace. The message of the Bible is that God is a God of peace, and produces the peace and makes peace, in and through His only begotten son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.[2]
Ephesians 2:15 (KJV) Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
This world has yet seen true peace. War characterizes all the history of mankind. It has been estimated that in the past 4000 years there have been less than 300 without a major war. “Peace is merely that brief moment in history when everybody stops to reload.” Why is the world in this state?
When God created the earth, it was to be a peaceful paradise. But Adam forfeited the harmony when he sinned. Adam’s sin “was like a declaration of war against God’s right to rule His own creation. It broke the peace of Eden. Adam’s rebellion against God had disastrous long-range effects.
It set the entire human race at enmity with God. All the evils that disrupted the peacefulness of our earthly existence stemmed from the curse of sin that began with Adam. Sin always causes separation.
God had to choose a people to be separated unto Himself and Israel was God’s chosen nation. God designed Israel to be distinct from the rest of the nations of the world by their manner of life and worship that points the nations to the living and true God. And out of Israel will come the Saviour of the world.
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
It was the body of Christ that bore the death penalty for sin on our behalf so that we can find true peace by faith in His suffering for our sake.
Romans 5:1 (KJV) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
John 5:24 (KJV) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Hebrews 10:10 (KJV) By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:20 (KJV) By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (KJV) And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
It is by the grace of God that we will keep the commandments and live holy lives for His glory.
The Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12-14 (KJV) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
- He is the Good News (v23)
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
The Apostle Paul’s conversion attesting to the living power of Christ to turn even the most notorious of sinners – Romans 1:16 (KJV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
He exhorts the Colossian Christians to abide in Christ, continue in the faith, grounded and settled. Grounding speaks of the foundation of faith acquired with first the knowledge of Christ and the power of that knowledge to cause one to obey the commands of God.
This is that power that the gospel imparts that the church is exhorted to boldly declare far and wide.
The gospel is the only hope in the world today. Everything else has been tried and found wanting. Everything else has failed. We are born under the wrath of God. We do not know God and we are evil by nature. Our greatest need is to be reconciled with God, have our sins forgiven, to know God as our Father, to be blessed by Him and to start as a child of God.[3]
CONCLUSION
Let us, therefore, shine for the Lord. Amen.
[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
[2] To help us explain this, turn to Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
[3] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1999, 1, 8, 12.