Take your Bibles with me again and turn to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. I want to preach to your this morning on one of the most beautiful words in the whole world: reconciliation.
Let's go ahead and read the first 23 verses of Colossians 1 together:
[! Scripture] (1) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, (2) To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (4) Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, (5) For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; (6) Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: (7) As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; (8) Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. (9) For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (10) That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (11) Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; (12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (18) And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (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; - Col 1:1-23 KJV
Reconciliation.
I know that word is a mouthful. It doesn't sound particularly beautiful. But when you see it happen, it is one of the most beautiful things in the whole world.
I grew up in a divorced home. My parents divorced when I Darci's aged and they really hated each other. I mean, I cannot remember a time growing up when they were in the same room when you couldn't just feel the tension.
Do you know what I daydreamed about as a child? Some of you who grew up in divorced homes might understand this. I didn't daydream about being an astronaut or a fighter pilot. My most persistent dream was to see my parents get back together. To see them reconciled.
That couldn't happen. It was already impossible then. But that didn't stop my little seven year old brain from dreaming about it.
But I have seen people very much opposed to one another get reconciled. When I was a boy, my Grammy and Grampy got divorced. They had been married for forty years, but for about ten years, they wouldn't speak to each other. When I was a teenager, they got back together and it was like nothing had every happened. They were reconciled, and it was a beautiful thing.
There are multiple similar stories of reconciliation in our congregation. Where two people, whether they were husband and wife or whether they were brothers and sisters or best friends were estranged from each other, were not on speaking terms, and then, by the grace of God - were reconciled. That is truly one of the most beautiful things in the whole world.
In preparing for this message I read a story of a husband and wife who started fighting and ended up divorcing and moving to different states. Never speaking to one another. Then, to add another tragedy, their adult son died.
One day, on his deceased son's birthday, the dad decided to visit his son's grave. As he stood there looking at this sons headstone, he could feel someone else behind him. It was his ex-wife. That could have been ugly. But neither of them wanted to start fighting there. Something about that situation brought them both together again, and pretty soon, they were reconciled and remarried.
The death of a son brought them together. The death of a son was the grounds for their reconciliation.
Let's read verses 19-23 again and see what this text is teaching us:
[! Scripture] (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; - Col 1:19-23 KJV
I want you to understand what these verses are teaching us this morning. The basic point they are making is pretty simple:
God is in the reconciling business, and God used Jesus to reconcile everything to Himself. The process is already begun and the process is inevitable, but it is still ongoing.
Or, put another way
God is in the ongoing process of reconciling everything to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Now, I want to break that down this morning into four points, and then I'll close asking a few questions as we apply this to our life. Let's pray and we'll get into that message.
Pray.
There are five things from these verses I think you need to understand. The first thing is...
Verse 20 says:
[! Scripture] by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
This is a pretty deep concept, but we live in a world where that is alienated from God. God and the world are at odds. The world is fighting against God. God is going to judge the world.
We were born into the middle of this cosmic war. It is all any of us have ever known. It's been going on since the garden of Eden, but actually, it's been going on before that - because it talks about "things in heaven" here too. There was a great angelic defection in heaven that proceeded the fall of man.
So for all of human history and predating human history - there has been this conflict. The world against God.
The Bible teaches this pretty clearly. For instance, listen to these verses from Ephesians 2:
[! Scripture] (2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. - Eph 2:2-3 KJV
The devil is in control of the world. The devil sets the course of the world. That's what these verses are teaching.
According to the world population clock, there are currently over 8 billion humans on planet earth. Listen, the vast majority of them are part of the darkness. The default state of all of them is to be alienated from God, opposed to God, part of this great historical defection against God.
But that isn't what God wanted. God did not want the world to be alienated from Him. He created mankind to walk in harmony with Him. He created creation to be a display of His glory. But sin cursed the world. Sin alienated the world. Sin put a riff between the world and God.
So the world is need of reconciliation, that is the first thing we see in these verses. The second thing I want you to see in these verses is:
Not only does God need to reconcile the world and heaven, God needs to reconcile each of us as individuals.
Verse 21 says:
[! Scripture] And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
So, it's not just the world that needed reconciliation. We needed reconciliation, because we were alienated from God. We were on the outs with God.
Now, we were on the outs with God for two reasons: first, because we are born as a part of this world system which is on the outs with God. But the second reason we are alienated from God is because of our wicked works.
Listen, the Bible teaches two things about man in our lost state very clearly:
First, we are born under Adam. We are born alienated from God. Every one of us is born in sin.
Second, we choose to be in sin. We like our sin.
Like a feuding couple, we want to be mad at God. In our sin we enjoy the conflict.
Let me put it another way: We are not victims of sin, we are willing participants. Joyful participants.
Now, listen, if this all sounds a bit too harsh - then you don't know people. People are capable of some truly awful things.
I was reading this week about the sinking of the Titanic. Do you know that most of the lifeboats they picked up were only half full? Imagine that scene. People are all around you in the water. They are thrashing and kicking and drowning and calling out for help. There are empty seats on the boat. I think only one of the lifeboats turned around to go pick up more people and be completely full - the rest of those boats plugged their ears to the screams of dying people all around them. They didn't want to risk it. They didn't want to be any more uncomfortable than they already were.
If you are thinking "man, those people were awful" you are missing the point. Those weren't bad people. Those were people. People are capable of terrible sin.
Do you ever think about the Holocaust? I mean, you had millions of jews rounded up and murdered. Prior to that you had a whole society rounding up these people and forcing them into ghettos and treating them as less than human.
Do you think every german citizen wanted to see that happen? No. The majority of germans were likely against it. But they went along to get along. They turned their eyes away.
What's the point? The point is that regular people - quote, unquote "good" people are alienated from God. "Good" people have chosen wickedness. They want what they want.
Here is how God describes us in Romans 3:10-18:
[! scripture] (10) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. - Rom 3:10-18 KJV
We needed to be reconciled. We were estranged from God in our sin.
So that brings me to the third point. (Remember, there are five.) The world needed to be reconciled. We needed to be reconciled.
The third point today is:
Look again at verse 20:
[! Scripture] 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 had a plan for reconciliation. God had a plan for making peace. And God's plan was Jesus dying on the cross. On the cross Jesus made a way for reconciliation. He made a way for the world to be reconciled to God.
[! Song] 🎵 Because the sinless Savior died. My sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied. To look on Him and pardon me, to look on Him and pardon me.
God sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sin.
[! Scripture] (2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1Jo 2:2 KJV
That word "propitiation" means "the means of appeasing." It means that Jesus life was the offering that God needed for the sins of the world, Jesus blood was what was needed to end the alienation of the world and for the world to be reconciled to Him.
Think about this. The world rejected God. We rejected God. He didn't reject us, we rejected Him. But in His infinite love and mercy, God made a way for us to be reconciled. We didn't make a way, we couldn't make a way. God made a way and that way involved the killing of God's only son Jesus Christ. It was the blood of Jesus.
And through the blood of Jesus, we can be reconciled to God. Through the work on the cross, someday, the world and heaven will be reconciled to Jesus. The work is already done. The process is already begun.
So that brings me to my fourth and fifth points. Let's review:
The fourth point I think these verses are making is:
Again, verse 20:
[! Scripture] 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.
There is a concept I want you to understand. The concept is "already, but not yet." "Already, but not yet."
This is a central thing we need to understand about the gospel. We live between "the already" and "the not yet".
God is reconciling the world and heaven to Himself. The work has already been done. But it has not yet been fully realized. So we are living in this space between already - God already did the work on the cross - and not yet - we haven't seen the full effects of it yet.
I remember one time I got bit by a spider. I'm not exactly sure what bit me. I didn't see the little cuss. But I sure felt it. I was sitting in a Wendy's down in Tennessee and all of a sudden, I just felt itchy all over. I felt like my body temperature was a million degrees. I honestly thought I might be dying. It came on all of a sudden. It was the most uncomfortable I have ever been.
Amanda rushed me to the doctor and in the doctor's office I had to sit there in that waiting room for what seemed like forever. I mean, I'm watching people that have the sniffles go in and I feel like I'm dying. It was awful.
Finally, the doctor took me back and looked over me and said "I think you got bit by a spider or something and you are having an allergic reaction." Then he quickly went and got this shot and stabbed me with it. I've never been so grateful for a shot in my entire life.
Now, here is the thing. It didn't work right away. It took a little while to kick in. It probably took several hours before I was feeling back to normal. So there was this period where the medicine was administered and it was doing it's work, but it hadn't fully worked out yet. It was inevitable that it would. It was working - but it would take some time to work out in full.
That's what God's reconciliation of the world is like. God looked at this broken world and He administered the strongest medicine possible: the cross of Christ.
I don't know what that will look like - but I know it's going to be awesome. The medicine has already been administered, but it has not yet taken its' full effect.
So there is an already, not yet part of God's work of reconcilation.
Now, let me give you my fifth point quickly and then I'll make some applications and be done.
The last thing I want you to see in these verses is:
So far we've been focused on verse 20. Look with me at verses 21-23:
[! Scripture] (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; - Col 1:19-23 KJV
Just like the world needs to be reconciled, we need to be reconciled and just like the cross of Christ started the inevitable and ongoing process of God reconciling the world to Himself, so the cross starts the process of us being fully reconciled to God.
The goal of our reconcilation is found in verse 22, God wants to present us "holy, and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight."
Just like there is an "already and not yet" part of God's salvation of the world, there is an "already and not yet" part of our salvation.
In a sense, because of what Christ did on the cross, we have been already reconciled. We are already presented in God's sight as holy, unblameable and unreproveable. When God looks at us, He sees Christ. He sees Christ's righteousness.
That's the already. But the not yet part is that we are not yet totally what we ought to be. Our reconcilation to being in practice "holy, unblameable and unrepreoveable" is still ongoing.
So in a sense we are saved and we are being saved.
We are living in between the already and the not yet. We have been justified. One day we will be glorified with God in heaven. Right now we are being sanctified.
So what do we do? Verse 23 tells us:
(we) continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
So that's the passage:
God is in the ongoing process of reconciling everything to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Now, let me wrap this up with a two simple questions of application:
First, have you been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ? have you trusted Christ as your savior? Are you believing in Him for your souls salvation?
If you have never trusted Christ? Why not do that today? Why not come forward and put your faith in Christ?
He has made a way for you to not be alienated anymore.
The second question I want to ask is for those who have trusted Christ: Are you active in the ministry of reconciliation.
We have been reconciled to God. Are you telling others about that reconciliation? That is our mission. Let's be active in it.
Let's stand for invitation and prayer.