The city of Colossi was located in the Likus Valley. We talked about that in previous studies. And it happened to be on a very important road that went from Ephesus all the way down to the Euphrates Valley. And then, of course, the great mighty river Euphrates travels about eighteen hundred miles and eventually empties into the Persian Gulf. But that road from Ephesus down to the Euphrates Valley was a very important road, and Colossi was quite a natural stopping place. So you would have commercial caravans stopping there. You would have travelers like diplomats and army personnel. They would stop there. They wouldn't stay. They would come and they would go. It was just a natural stopping place. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why some of those so easily came into the church in the city of Colossae and caused a great deal of damage. I would like to take just a moment this morning to remind you that the religious leaders of Paul's community, before he was a Christian, were determined to exterminate the Christian faith. And Paul was the leader in that. He was known as Saul of Tarsus. and he traveled not only among the villages in Judea and around Jerusalem, but he had permission to go outside of what we call Israel and go into foreign cities, into the Jewish communities in those foreign cities like Damascus, and then he would take prisoner those Jews who accepted the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. Paul's conversion was a tremendous experience, not only for him personally, but for the religious community in which he had labored and served for so many years. And I think as a result there was probably a change in their attitude. They probably came to the opinion that there was no way of exterminating this new movement. So they changed their tactics and they began to infiltrate the Christian communities. You find that all the way through Paul's writings. It is something that hounded him from place to place. He would start something beautiful, and then he would move on, and he would find that others had come in and infiltrated the congregation, and were trying to bring them back again into an understanding of the Jewish faith. They never rejected the Christian faith. They simply tried to modify it. And when you think of Paul, his earliest missionary activities took him into Galatia. And one of his first letters he wrote to the churches in Galatia. So you're talking about the beginning of that movement that would take him right around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, where he would see many great and wonderful signs of God's grace. But right in Galatia where he started, You find that very shortly afterwards he writes a letter and he says to his friends there, Why is it that you have been so easily moved away from the liberty that is in Christ? He goes on and he says, Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. You ran well. What hindered you? Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven, leavens the whole lump. He even speaks the language that they would understand. They would hear from those who infiltrated the church. They were moving them away from that very simple childlike faith in Christ. Now, it wasn't something that happened just in one place. It happened in many areas. And it is surprising that Paul to a church that he loves so much, like the church in Philippi, a church which he founded. And in his letter, the letter to the Philippians, the word or the thought of joy resounds over and over and over. He was happy with this church. But he found that in that church he loved so much, the same thing had happened. And his strongest language against these adversaries is found in Philippians. In Philippians chapter three, it is so strong it rather startles us today. And we think, would Paul really talk like that? And this is his language, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. Now we wouldn't talk that way today even to our adversaries. But I think we must deal gently with Paul. Paul belonged to that movement before his conversion. He knew the language they all used about those who were outside of their faith. They called them dogs. They referred to them in derogatory terms. So Paul simply picks up their language and he turns it around and he uses it of them. For in a sense, they fit into these categories. They were trying to spoil the work of God. It is not a pleasant subject, but you find it over and over in the epistles of Paul. And I'm sure that in Colossae, this is part of the problem. When you read about diets and keeping certain festivals and new moons and Sabbaths, you have a general idea of where that came from. On the other hand, that would not be the whole story. There was probably the influence also of Gentile philosophies, and it was a mixture. But all of these things together, as we mentioned previously, they tended to downgrade the Lord Jesus and the exalted other beings like angels and self-effort and works that we can do and they put them on a level of great importance in the Christian community. Now, I'd like to suggest to you this morning as we think about this, that in our world today we may not use the same terminology. We may not even have to face the same type of adversaries as Paul did in his generation. But if you're aware of what's going on in our world today, and especially in the Christian world, and I use that term in its widest sense, you find that we're still facing the same problem. And it is something that disturbs us. Now, how does Paul handle this? Well, we've noticed already in just a brief summary this morning, he begins by telling them, I'm praying for you. I've heard the good news about your conversion and what happened down in the Likus Valley. And then he says, I just want you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Please bear the repetition. He's telling them, God has a point of view. Doesn't matter what the issue is. God has a point of view. Now, he's not even touching the problem in the church in Colossae, but you're in the church in Colossae. You're listening to the letter from Paul. You know there's a problem in the church, and it would be difficult not to get the implication that Paul is telling you, even in this problem, God has a point of view. And it's important that we be filled with the knowledge of His will. And then when you know God's will, and what God thinks of His Son, And we're going to notice this morning, Paul uses that beautiful phrase, His dearly beloved Son, God's Son whom He loves. Well, when you know that, Paul then challenges you to walk worthy of the Lord. Now, that's a very high standard. When you understand who the Lord Jesus is, and you belong to Him, and you have to walk a life that is worthy of the Lord, This is not something you can do in your own natural strength. So Paul then reminds them of God's mighty power, of that great strength that comes from God's glorious power that enables His people in this world to walk in a way that is worthy of God. Now, I know in the New Testament there are many weaknesses in the local churches We're wrong, may I say that gently, if we go back and think you're going to find the ideal church in the New Testament. You're going to find churches that are filled with problems. Paul in his letters is dealing with these problems over and over. They are not ideal churches. But in those churches, you're going to find men and women who have been radically changed by the gospel and are now leading a life totally different from their previous lives, and they do that in the strength of God. Now, Paul is going to suggest to them indirectly, it's not easy to be a Christian. And I think we're wrong if we think it is easy. It is not easy in our world today to walk worthy of the Lord. And it wasn't easy two thousand years ago. We've talked about Paul and Silas. I know in the jail and at midnight they sang the praises of God. Don't misunderstand that. That does not mean it was easy for them. Maybe you should try and visualize these two men. They're almost naked. They have been beaten with many stripes. So they're covered with blood and dirt. Their backs are like open sores, and they hurt. And their feet, they're in the stalks. Their shaft, they're held there firmly, and they hurt. And these men probably are hungry and thirsty. So you have to see them in the situation where they were. They were thrown into the inner dungeons. That would be a room, a small room, subterranean room, without ventilation and light. It would be difficult to imagine a more horrible place. And if they sang the praises of God, it was not because it's easy to be a Christian. It's because they had been strengthened by God's might according to His glorious power. So Paul, he's telling the friends in Colossae, I know it's not easy, but I want to tell you something now, and you'll find it in verse twelve of Colossians chapter one. It is a beautiful little phrase that reminds all of us the best is yet to come. So you read in Colossians one and verse twelve, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Now the previous verse strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power. We've talked about Paul and Silas in that way they sang the praises of God. Paul is saying to the friends in Colossae, when you're strengthened with that power that comes from God, you give thanks. Thanks to the Father. Why? Because you know the best is yet to come. And if you haven't got a clear concept of the coming glory, then you're going to be downhearted and depressed. But Paul says, God will strengthen you. He'll help you through the circumstances that are difficult. And at the same time, and may I speak very intimately and carefully, he's telling them, and God's going to whisper in your ear over and over, the best is yet to come. The inheritance of the saints in light. It's very much like Paul when he writes to the Romans, and he says, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. In that way takes you right up into heaven, into the glory that belongs to the transcendent God. And then he says, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. And you almost want to say you must be kidding, Paul. But Paul is not kidding. Once you've seen that glory, you never look for problems. Christians ought not to provoke problems they have down through the centuries. In the third and fourth centuries, there were Christians who provoked the authorities. They wanted to die as martyrs. They thought, if we die as a martyr, we'll have greater glory, not if you provoke your death. And then in the Middle Ages, there were Christians who went in groups from town to town. Men and women, they would bear their backs. Each had a small whip, and they would whip the back of the person in front of them. It was a type of public penance. But God never asked for things like that. So when you come to the Bible, you're not encouraged to provoke problems, to look for problems, but when they come, and they do come, you find yourself you can glory, you can rejoice even in the tribulation. Why? Because you've seen the glory. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Paul says, because of that we can also glory. in tribulations. Well, here Paul is telling his friends in Colossae, whatever the problems are round about, if you know the Lord Jesus, even those things that disturb you in the church, if your faith is in Him, remember, you've been qualified by the Father to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, the last two words in light, you jump right out of space and time and history. This is an inheritance that belongs to eternity. You find that the inheritance of the Israelites, it was located here in the world. And a little piece of property called Canaan, still occupied today in part by the Jewish people. That was their inheritance. For the Christians, we have an inheritance, the inheritance of the saints in the light, and you just bring right out of time and space and history. God is the Father of lights. God is light. And the inheritance He offers to His children today is an eternal inheritance. It breaks the bonds of this little planet. You are destined to an eternal glory in oneness with the Lord Jesus. So in summary, verse twelve is a beautiful verse. Paul is saying, I know you have problems, but please remember the best is yet to come. And then in verse thirteen, he's going to begin now very gently to deal with the problem in Colossae. I like the way he comes to this problem. Some of us might in a sense mentally put up our fists and we want, Paul didn't do that. He brings them in this gentle way to a point where every person in that church will have to ask the question, who is Jesus really? Now look at verse thirteen, He. Now you have to pause there and identify the pronoun. Just the word He doesn't help you. So you go back to verse twelve. And in verse twelve you read, giving thanks to the Father. So now you know the subject is the Father. And in verse thirteen, He the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Now as you sit in the church in Colossae and you listen to this letter, I think at this point, With this reference to the power of darkness, it will come to you like a flash. Your previous life, you don't even want to think about it. You don't want to remember the things that you did in the name of religion in your pre-Christian life. You lived in the realm of darkness. And there was a moment down in Colossi, possibly Epaphras was the preacher, who announced a message from God of deliverance, of salvation. And that came when you made that commitment, when you received the Lord Jesus as your Savior into your life, into your heart. You can remember the day when you made that decision and you were moved. Literally, you were moved out of the realm of the power of darkness and you were brought into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. And as you listen to that, it might come to you, no angel was involved in this. This didn't happen because I kept diets. It did not happen because I kept special days and festivals. It was God who acted. and brought me out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. Now the term the power of darkness is used in the New Testament not frequently, but once or twice. And I think we should take a moment and think about this this morning. You may remember that the Lord Jesus was in Gethsemane. He had been praying It's the moment when His perspiration fell to the ground like drops of blood. It is a very beautiful, even moving thing to remember that in that moment, which from our point of view is like a moment of crisis, the Lord Jesus looked for His sustenance, for His help from His closest friends, took Peter John and the other one a little farther into the garden. And he said, I want you to watch with me and pray with me. This is the Lord Jesus. He's talking to his companions. I want you to pray with me. He went a little farther. These men were emotionally and physically exhausted. I'm not going to be hard on them. They went to sleep. And the Lord Jesus alone... is in that moment of agony. He probably heard something. Please notice he did not run and hide in some corner of that little farm. As you read the story of Gethsemane, you have the impression he came right out towards the gate. And there was the group of men, the enemies, they had come to take him prisoner. And looking at them, the Lord Jesus said, When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Here you have the one who said, I am the light of the world. And right in front of him is the power of darkness. Those who under the influence of the evil one are always opposed to the work of God. They stand there's like confrontation. There is no battle. They stand there, the one who is light in himself intrinsically. And here is the power of darkness represented by these henchmen who've come to take the Lord Jesus prisoner. And he referred to them as your hour and the power of darkness. They may have fought for an instant. They were going to triumph, but it was a brief moment It is the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection who triumphed over them. Paul says in Colossians chapter two that he triumphed over principalities and powers. Some have used the expression, he stripped them off himself like leeches that gathered together to destroy them at the cross. There he triumphed over them and his triumph is a permanent and eternal triumph. Well, these people in Colossi, and maybe we ought to think about ourselves this morning, prior to our conversion, we lived in that realm of darkness. But we were like the psalmist. Today we can go back and remember, we can take his words and make them our own. The psalmist wrote, Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. We've seen that some of us in our parents' in our grandparents, and in other friends that we knew. Then the moment came when we individually experienced that in conversion, and we were delivered by God. In the language of Paul, the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness. Please note, he does not leave us hanging in the air. He conveyed us. He translated us. into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Of course, that can move both ways. You remember the Israelites, first the northern kingdom, the Assyrians came, and they conquered the northern nation, and they conveyed, they transported those who belonged to that northern kingdom into the small towns in northern Mesopotamia. And in that sense, they were lost. There are still those who speak about the ten lost tribes of Israel. There was never the possibility, humanly speaking, for them ever to come together again. They were conveyed from what they considered good to that which they considered bad and fatal. It happened to the southern kingdom when the Babylonians came, and they were taken down into a type of concentration camp on the river down in Babylon. They went from Jerusalem. They saw the temple, the house have gone, and they walked away, and many of them would never see it again. And they were conveyed, they were transported from what they considered good to that which was evil and bad. This movement is in the opposite direction. We were in the kingdom, or the power of darkness in that realm. And God, He not only freed us, delivered us from that, but He translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. I don't know if you can make a greater contrast from the power of darkness and the kingdom of the Son of God's love. That is the movement that happens in conversion. You're brought out of darkness and into that beautiful light. And so the Lord Jesus, He is the ruler in this new kingdom. And you're in the church in Colossians. You've heard all about the angels, and you've heard about the importance of festivals and diets, and you're sitting quietly listening to Paul's letter, and you know, I was brought into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Again, I emphasize, no angel, no festivals, no diets. God brought you into oneness with His Son, not only for your life in Colossae, but for the rest of your life forever and ever in His presence. Now we come to the last verse I want to notice with you this morning, and it's verse fourteen. And it is one of these great verses of the New Testament in whom. Now you've got to pause there. Again you've got to define the subject. So you go back to the previous verse and right at the end You find these words, the kingdom of the Son of His love, referring to the Lord Jesus. Now, verse fourteen. In whom? In that Son of God's love. In the Lord Jesus, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. I don't think I'm exaggerating that at that moment in the reading of the letter, you might even be emotionally moved. You're going back in remembering this all now. You remember that someone paid a price so that you could be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus and the one who paid the price, the one in whom you received redemption, that was the Lord Jesus. You can't overemphasize, not an angel, not works that you did, but this was all of the Lord Jesus. He's the one who came. Now, redemption is a term from the Old Testament. It's a term that was common in the secular world. You could redeem a slave by paying money to the master and you could free him. There were other things that you could do. They were forms of redemption. That type of terminology was well known in the ancient world. It comes into the Bible with spiritual significance, and finally it is applied to the person that we love, the Lord Jesus. It's in him that we have redemption through his blood. Now, if you're reading a modern translation this morning, you might note that that little phrase through his blood is absent. And it's absent in Colossians. because in some of the very good manuscripts it's not there. But it is present in Ephesians, and there's not a doubt about it in the world. In Ephesians Paul uses a similar phrase, redemption in or through his blood. So this redemption is the redemption that the Lord Jesus achieved for us through his own death. This makes it very personal. And in our communion services, I don't know if you ever sit and read some of those hymns or sing them. If you sit there quietly in meditation, if there's ever a tear that comes down your cheek when you remember how much He loved you, that He was willing to give His life to deal with the problem of your sin and bring you back to God. I know we do it every Sunday. And in a sense, it becomes a ritual, a ceremony that we go through now and now. But I'm sure there are moments. It happens to me, and I'm sure it happens to you. You can no longer even sing it. All of a sudden hits you. What the Lord Jesus paid to bring you back to God. It's in Him that we have redemption. And as you sit in that church in Colossae, and you remember all this teaching about angels, and the things we should do, the festivals and the new moons and the Sabbaths and so on, you realize nothing of that had to do anything with my redemption. My redemption was exclusively related to the Lord Jesus and His death at Calvary. And then it's in Him that you have forgiveness. Now forgiveness is such a precious thing It gets sweeter, I think, as the years go by. Maybe with the years we become more aware of what we are in our natural state. And just to know day by day that you have been forgiven, that nothing that you have done will ever be laid to your charge, it becomes very precious. I do say sometimes to the friends, it is important to know who stands behind your forgiveness. Now, I'm not being critical, but you know that you can still kneel down and through a screen, you can confess your sins to a man who represents the church, and then you can hear the words, I absolve you. Well, you might want to think twice. about the authority behind that forgiveness. I remember, and please pardon me for the personal reference, but some years ago I went back to university and I took a master's degree out in Vancouver at Regent College, which is located on the campus of the University of British Columbia. It's a postgraduate school. And in that program of the master's degree, many joined for the first year. They only go for one year. Most of them are graduates from the university. They're going to go out and face the world, and they decide we'll take one year and get a good grounding in our Christian faith, and then we'll go and face the world and practice our professions. Well, all of those who successfully finish the first year, they receive a diploma. And then those who go on for the second year or the longer period eventually received the master's degree well when the first year was finished I was at the convocation and I was given a diploma I happened to know the principal of the school and afterwards I smiled and I said to him tell me what is the importance of a diploma well he said Jim now don't be critical he said don't be critical and then he smiled and he said a diploma carries the weight of the institution that issues it. You go to a third-rate school and they give you a diploma, you've got a third-rate diploma. If you go to a first-rate school and they give you a diploma, you have a first-rate diploma. Now, I'm not talking about diplomas. I'm talking about forgiveness. And you want to be sure that you have genuine permanent forgiveness. And that only comes from the one who paid the price for your sins. It's in Him, God's dear Son, that we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. We've already mentioned that lady who came into Simon's house. She came in at the hour when the meal was over. And in those years, you must remember there was no refrigeration. Anything left over had to be disposed of almost immediately. And there was the custom to let the poor in. They came in without any disorder. And they were allowed to take off the table what had been left and go out onto the streets and they could enjoy the food outside. By the way, in England, that custom went on into the twelfth and thirteenth century. In the small castles, in the manor houses, you couldn't have a big feast without everybody in the community knowing it, especially the poor. And they would come and they would stand there. And at a given time they were allowed in, and again they took the leftovers and they ate them outside. It would be a moment like that. And this woman slipped in and she wasn't looking for food. and she came and she stood behind the Lord Jesus. And as you know, Simon and his friends were indignant that a woman of this character should come in and spoil this evening. It was the Lord Jesus who had time for her. We don't know the details. I don't know if she was an adulteress or a prostitute, but she was morally devastated. And the Lord Jesus spoke to that woman And listen once again to His words, Your sins are forgiven you. That's when they whispered among themselves the men and raised the issue, Who is this who even forgives sins? Because they knew that forgiveness is the prerogative of God. What they did not know is that God was present in the person of the Lord Jesus. The forgiveness we have today, it is in God's beloved Son. He's the one who died for our sins. And when we think about that, let me just emphasize these verses. You know them by memory, but they are so important. He spared not his own son. That word, own, his special, beloved son. He spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. In some measure, that helps us understand how precious you are and how precious I am in the eyes of God, that His special Son would be delivered up to bring us back redeemed and forgiven into the presence of God. At this moment, then, the real question for everyone in Colossi is, who is the Lord Jesus? I mentioned to you when we began our series, the man who lives down in Tampa, his name is Jacob Nusner. He's a great Jewish scholar and a friend of Christians. He has not accepted the Christian position, but he wrote a book some years ago and it's called, A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. And he goes right through the story of the Lord Jesus. And he comes to one particular moment when the Lord Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to those of old and to the Jewish mind, of course, that is a reference to the Torah. That's the Word of God that came to Moses. This is held high and lofty in the Jewish community. And I speak with all reverence. And the Lord Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to those of old. But then he added, but I say unto you. And that's the shocking phrase that the Lord Jesus seems to suggest he has the authority to modify or expand that word that came from God. So at that point, Neusner, and he's not irreverent, he raises the question and he says he would like to ask Jesus the question, who Do you think you are? God? Now, that's why he was crucified, speaking humanly. His enemy said, You have made yourself the Son of God, and they would not accept that. Nusenor has not accepted it, but he's not so violent as those two thousand years ago, but he goes right to the issue. When you meet the Lord Jesus, you have to answer the question. Who is he? And the question comes from Paul. It just explodes in verse fifteen and onward. He's brought you up to that point. You're asking the question. And then Paul says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him and by Him and for Him all things were created. He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church. And then He goes on to say, It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. Paul brought you there. And when you ask the question, He just explodes with this beautiful hymn of worship and tribute to the Lord Jesus, a hymn we need to hear today over and over again. It is a beautiful, beautiful recognition and tribute to the uniqueness and the dignity and the glory of the Lord Jesus. As we conclude then our service this morning, all of us know by our tradition, all of us know by the teaching we have heard down through the years all the right answers to these questions. But it's more than just having the right answers. We trust that today in each one of our hearts and in our lives, there will be that acute awareness of who He is, because when you know Him, then you're going to say, like Paul said, and you only said it once, you're going to speak about the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus, My Lord. For when you know Him, it brings you to a place of willing submission to Him to serve him until finally you meet him face to face. Our Father, bless us now as we separate this morning. We thank you for these moments spent in your presence and reading your word. And we pray that the glory, the dignity, the beauty, the authority, the wonder of the Lord Jesus will increase in our minds and hearts day by day until that coming day when we shall see him as he is. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever. Amen.