Rapport: Good morning RGC. If you have been coming here for a while, you’ll know that we have been preaching through the book of Matthew. Like last week when Carlos preached this morning, we will be taking another break from Matthew. This morning we will be in Colossians chapter 1.

Context & Relevance: To give you a little context of what I will be preaching through, we have this letter written by Paul with Timothy to the church at Colossae. Paul is writing this letter to remind the Colossian believers of who they are in Christ, but also as a warning to avoid false teaching that was endangering the congregation. Just as we are no strangers to the threat of false teaching in America, the Colossians too, were influenced by a mix of false teachers, seeking to lead these believers astray from the hope of the gospel.

• Paul is seeking here to redirect these believers from false worship and point them back to Christ. The passage from this letter is a simple, yet profound reminder of the grace of God through the gospel. How an enemy can be made a friend. How the Lord, through the scandal of grace, can turn sinners to saints. The main point this morning is this.

Main Point: Believers have been reconciled to Christ, set apart as Holy, and called to live Holy.

Transition: It’s important to first see the bad news of our previous condition to appreciate the good news of the gospel.

• Believers were once enemies of God. (v.21).

Explanation: Paul begins this pericope with a conjunction and a pronoun.

Colossians 1:21, “21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…”

Paul is writing and referring to the believers in Colossae. He is also continuing his previous thoughts connected to this statement. Paul is speaking on the preeminence of Christ in all things. 

• Jesus is the standard for perfection. All things were made for Christ and in Christ. Since Jesus is before all things and all things hold together in Him, man is not the hero of this grand story we find ourselves in. Sinful mankind, like you and I used to be, just like the Colossians used to be, were in rebellion against God.

You see, Paul is writing this letter and specifically this thought here as a strong contrast from what believers used to be in their rebellious sin compared to who they are now in Christ.

Colossians 1:21, “21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…”

• Believers in Jesus Christ were once something very different than their previous nature. They were separated from God and through their evil thinking, were walking in those evil actions. They were a part of the fallen world, inheriting a curse from Adam. 
• This curse was brought upon this world when Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden. They were given a life in perfect fellowship with God. When they disobeyed the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they were no longer in fellowship with God. God said that if they ate from that tree that surely, they would die. 
• They would eventually die physically, but what they had experienced was spiritual death. The life that they had in fellowship with God was broken. They were alienated from God.
• To be alienated here means to be estranged. The curse of Adam was passed onto every generation of people on this earth and as a result, we were estranged from God, separated and alienated from His presence. 
• Sin is what alienates us from God. Just as Adam and Eve sinned and were alienated from God, the Colossians experienced this alienation as well. We see early on in Genesis how that transpired.

Genesis 3:7-8, “7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

• Adam and Eve knew shortly after their sin that something had changed. When their eyes were opened, they were naked and ashamed, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. They not only covered themselves, but they hid from God. 
• We were no different outside of Christ. Our hearts were hardened. We hid ourselves from God and did what was right in our own eyes. We didn’t have to be told how to disobey God, we did it willingly. The natural actions of Adam and Eve were to cover their nakedness and hide from God, and so we followed suit. 
• We didn’t just learn this behavior, but it was ingrained into our identity. We walked in darkness, unable to live or exist with a Holy God. We were sinners by nature, inherited from our great grand-daddy and thus we too were alienated from God. We were spiritually dead.

Ephesians 4:18, “18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

Not only were we alienated from God, but we were hostile in mind. 

• To be hostile in mind here means to betray God with our thoughts. Everything that we once pursued before Christ was in opposition to Christ. Every thought, every motive, every pursuit, was hostile toward God. It was impossible to serve God with anything in our sinful nature. We were not only opposed to Jesus, but we were also like rabid animals, motivated to destroy all that is good to God. It means that we were direct enemies of God’s perfect Law. We broke His Law. We lied, we stole, we blasphemed, we were selfish, we hated our brother, we disobeyed our parents, we looked upon others with lust, and we offered up idols in place of God. We all opposed what God called good. And all these sinful patterns began in the heart. This type of opposition is pure hatred directed toward the righteousness of the Lord. Jesus makes this point clear at the Sermon on the Mount where He connects our sinful condition to the heart. Where hostile mind and thoughts lead, outward expressions of evil follow suit. 

Illustration: It is like a child who runs away from a loving father. This child doesn’t like the rules of his father and instead of submitting to his father’s wisdom and rule, he runs away seeking to live life his own way. Even though the father’s rules were a means to protect the child, the child aimlessly runs away from the hedge of protection from the father. Out on his own, the child suffers greatly. He is hungry, cold, lonely, and in danger. He views his father as a tyrant, who just wants to control his life. He twists the love of his father into oppression. Because of his actions of leaving the father’s borders of protection, he has been alienated, and his thinking is hostile toward the father and what is best for him.

• This was the harsh reality of our existence before Christ. Our nature before Christ was pure rebellion. The protection of God’s love and mercy were far out of our reach, and it was our sin that separated us from Him. 
• Sin isn’t to be taken lightly, and the trajectory of that path of disobedience would only lead to further hostility toward God. We were well on our way to hell as sin continued to grow. Look at how Paul frames this in Romans 1.

Romans 1:21-25,” 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Application: Before Christ, all of us were alienated from God. We didn’t have the loving Father by our side. We rejected God with our own sinful thoughts and corrupt minds, seeking destruction against ourselves and against the very righteousness of God. We rejected God’s Law. We were pushed and pulled by the winds of sinful passion. We replaced the truth of God for a lie and sought nothing more than to reject and rebel against God. Our plight was bleak. Our destiny was death and hell. We offered nothing to the Lord but our sin. We deserved justice. We deserved to be punished. We were storing up God’s wrath, but thanks be to God for His great grace and mercy to those who believe in Him.

Transition: Even though believers were once alienated and hostile in mind, committing evil against a Holy God, they have now been reconciled and made holy.

• Believers are now reconciled and made holy. (v.22).

Explanation: Look at verse 21-22.

Colossians 1:21-22a, “21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death…”

Believers outside of Christ were separated from God, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled.

• Our sin is what separated us from God and lead to death, but Christ in His death reconciles those who believe in Him. It was Jesus’ death at the cross as the key to reconciliation with Him.
• Reconciliation means to bring together two parties that were estranged or in dispute. In this case, man had been estranged from God due to their sin. It was common during the 1st century for reconciliation to be initiated by the offending party. If you offend someone, it would be on you to rectify the situation. It would be on the offending party to make sure the offense is taken care of and the effects of reconciliation would be upon the injured party.
• Reconciliation between God and sinners comes with a twist. The effect of reconciliation is initiated by the injured party. Before Christ, we offended God. We diminished God with all our being. Since God is holy and without sin, we only offended Him with our sin and rebellion. We were guilty and sin stained.
• By God’s great grace and mercy, He sent His Son to live the perfect life. A life where Christ was tempted in all the ways that we were but never sinned. Jesus was fully God and fully man but never exercised His power in a way as to not relate with us. Even though Jesus was innocent and followed God’s Law perfectly, He was betrayed and crucified. God was the injured party through our sin, but Jesus willingly laid His life down to die to reconcile us to Him. His death on a bloody cross is the key to reconciliation where there is forgiveness of sin.

Colossians 1:19-20, “19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Jesus’ death on the cross effectively paid for the sins of all who would put their faith and trust in His completed work at Calvary. If you are here this morning and you believe in the gospel, you have died with Christ. The gospel is the good news of Christ coming to die as a payment for our sins. If you have believed in this gospel, you have been reconciled with Him in that death.  Although we were separate from God in our sin, Jesus died, that we would die with Him. This is only a work that could be done by Him, by His grace and mercy alone.

Illustration: John MacArthur writes, “Sinners cannot be reconciled to Him on their own terms. Unregenerate people have no ability to appease God’s anger against sin, satisfy His holy justice, or conform to His standard of righteousness. They are guilty of fatally violating God’s law and face eternal banishment from His presence. The deadly, deceptive premise of all false religion is that sinners, based on their own moral and religious efforts and achievements, can reconcile themselves to God. But God alone designed the way of reconciliation, and only He can initiate the reconciliation of sinners; that God…reconciled us to Himself is precisely the good news of the gospel.”

• There is only one way to fellowship with God and that is through Christ. He is the way and the truth and the life. The world will offer many ways to God, but the only way to become reconciled to God is through the work of Christ.

Explanation: Why did Jesus reconcile us to God? Paul writes that this reconciliation accomplishes something powerful for the believer. 

Colossians 1:22b, “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…”

Jesus didn’t just reconcile us to Him that we would be the same person as before. He gave us a new identity in Him. Since we have died with Christ, we have been made a new creation in Him. We have been made holy and blameless.

• To be holy means to be set apart. We have been set apart in Christ as holy once and for all before the Father and we are being made holy as we continue and mature in Christ. 
• Paul in many of his letters refers to believers as Saints. This means those who are set apart from the world. Jesus is Holy and thus we were also made holy through our union with Him. To further this point, believers are also known as the bride of Christ.  When you look at a bride on her wedding day, she is beautiful in her wedding gown. Her hair is done. She has the perfect dress. She has the right make-up. She is meant to stand out at the wedding ceremony. Believers are also presented in this same way, but it is Jesus who has completed the work necessary to present believers as the spotless bride.
• It doesn’t matter if you have thrown your life away or have struggled with a particular sin, or carry regrets of past sin, when the Lord saved you, you were presented as His bride before the Father as holy, righteous, and forgiven. Jesus has pardoned your sins through His death, burial, and resurrection. 

Ephesians 5:25-27, “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Christ, like a faithful husband, loved His bride and lived a sacrificial life and suffered a sacrificial death for her. He has sanctified her, cleansed her by the Word of God. His church as the bride is presented to Himself in splendor, above reproach, without any defects, spots or wrinkles, completely holy and blameless.

Application: Brothers and sisters, this means that we are now one with Christ. We are no longer separated from God. If you have placed your faith and trust in Christ, you can live everyday with the hope and assurance that Jesus is with you. That He is with you in the valleys, on the mountaintops and in every circumstance in between. We are reconciled with Christ, because of His death. Through His resurrection we are given new identities in Jesus. We have been made holy and blameless, and above reproach before Him. Our standing before God is forgiven. When the Father looks upon us, He sees Jesus, who is holy.

Illustration: When we were in school, or maybe some of you are still in school, we would all receive report cards. Some of us were afraid to show our report cards to our parents. As sinners, all of our efforts to get good grades were met with a resounding “F” across the board. The grace of God through the gospel is that Jesus takes our report card that has the failing grade and gives those who trust in Him a new report card with His name on top, all with passing grades across the board. Straight A’s. 

• The question we must ask ourselves is this: do we trust the Lord to replace our filthy report cards with the clean report card of Christ? Where His holiness covers our sin and shame? Look at what Paul writes in the next chapter as an encouragement.

Colossians 2:13-14, “13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” 

Transition: Since God has made those who believe in Him holy and blameless through Christ, we must continue on in the faith.

• The completed work of Christ enables believers to live Holy. (v.23).

Explanation: The completed work of Christ enables believers to live holy. If we are holy and righteous in our standing before God and continually being made holy, our lives should reflect the holiness of Christ. This was a confident expectation from Paul, that the gospel would take root and good fruit would abound.

Colossians 1:23, “23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

The sufficiency and potency of the gospel ensures that all who have placed their faith in the completed work of Christ will continue to experience the blessings of salvation in Him.

• This hinges on whether we continue to believe in what Christ has done is enough. Do you believe that God has reconciled you from death into life through Christ? Do you believe that He has made you holy before the Father? Are we adding anything to what Christ has accomplished?
• This is an important command from Paul. The church of Colossae had an influx of false teachers that sought to add to Christianity apart from Christ alone. During this time, these teachers were teaching a type of new-age worship. That there were different ways to worship God, whether it be through asceticism (which is severe self-denial and strict discipline to grow closer to God) or worship of angels. These types of worship are merit based in its practice and Paul rejects these.
• This command does not imply that we have to try hard and earn our righteousness. Walking out that faith is the evidence of God powerfully working out that salvation in our daily lives. The evidence of a true faith depends on the power of Christ working in the believer.

Paul has given reassurance in this passage that the mark of a believer is found in Christ alone. These other forms of worship are dead in comparison to Christ. Thus, he commands that believers continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.

• A faith that is stable means that believers are building their lives upon the solid rock of Christ. A faith that is steadfast is a faith firm in the truth of God’s Word. 
• The devil will seek to influence you through worldly practices of worship and false teaching, but if we know Christ, we know the hope of the gospel rings true. We must be stable and steadfast by looking to Christ.

Luke 6:47-49, “47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

If we are to continue on in the faith, it means that we are to not shift from the hope of the gospel that we have heard. This is the good news that was preached to you at one point. That we were all sinners alienated from God. That God is perfect, holy and righteous. That we deserved justice and punishment for our sin, but God by His grace sent His Son to die as a payment for our sins. 

• We would never build a house on sand, where there is no foundation. Where the streams of life hit the house and it crumbles. Paul tells us to be stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. That we build our house on this foundation of hope which is firm and secure. Where the foundation is laid on the rock of Christ. 

Application: There is fruit where this message is preached. Paul says that this message has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, meaning the message of the gospel will not fail. It did not fail when it was preached to him, and it did not fail when we heard it preached at the point of our salvation. 

• Paul was a persecutor of Christians and is famous for holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen. He was on the way to persecute more Christians when God knocked him off his high horse. Even though Paul was alienated from God, hostile in mind, and evil in his deeds, God had a different plan for Him. He was reconciled to God by faith through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He was made holy and blameless and presented to God as one of many of Christ’s Bride. Even though Paul was an enemy of God, the Lord changed a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. He raised a dead man to life. The hope of the gospel changed Paul, and we see a beautiful picture of God’s grace in his life. Paul continued on in the faith, and we too are called to do the same. Through the gospel we see God’s profound grace realized in the life of Paul and beyond.

Illustration: A quote that I saw recently on social media reads, “The apostle Paul entered heaven to the cheers of those he martyred. That’s how the gospel works.”

Clarification: Brothers and sisters, we too were once like Paul. Enemies of God. The curse of sin stained our lives, and we rejected God at every corner. We were heading toward the wide gate that leads to hell. But the hope of the gospel is this: If you have placed your faith and trust in the sufficiency and potency of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, all of that has changed. You are no longer that enemy. God has reconciled you to His Son through His death. You have been buried with Christ in His death and risen to new life with Him. Your sins have been forgiven as far as the east is to the west. You are now holy and blameless before a perfect God through Jesus. 

Final Application: May we leave here with the assurance and hope that the Lord Jesus is with us always. That we would treasure in our hearts and minds the great hope of salvation. Even though we toil and struggle with sin now, we know that all hope is found in the solid rock of Christ: Through His Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with other believers in His Church. May we build our lives upon Him and Him alone. If we treasure Christ above everything, I am certain that God will carry you through every trial, every suffering and you will persevere to the end. Let me leave you with this final passage.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”