Delivered Into Christ’s Kingdom (Colossians #23)

Text: Colossians 1:13

Christianity is not a list of things you need to stop doing when you trust Jesus Christ, but a whole new agenda of ways to serve the Lord in this life; Ephesians 4:24-32.

What believers are delivered from

  • hath delivered us from the power of darkness
    • Standing of the believer
    • A believer has been removed from the danger posed by the power of darkness.
      • You don’t have to keep confessing sins in order to stay delivered.  Some religions say if you die and haven’t confessed all your sin then you’ll go to hell.  But haven’t you learned over time that some things you didn’t realize were sin are sin? Haven’t you realized some things you aren’t doing that you should be doing?  So if you trusted Jesus Christ, the few sins you knew about were the only ones that were cleared?
      • Listen carefully, there is NEVER a partial clearing of sin in Jesus Christ.  God the Father does not offer partial justification in Jesus Christ.
  • Power of darkness
    • Darkness provides cover to the real enemy.
    • Way of the wicked is as darkness, they know now at what they stumble.
    • Even more sinister than just ignorance comes the conviction that evil is good and good is evil. Luke 22:52-53 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? 53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
    • Darkness gives you a false sense of security when you’re doing wrong.
    • John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
    • Darkness hides the way out.
    • Acts 26:18 is Paul giving his testimony to Agrippa. In that verse Paul describes his God given ministry to rescue souls from darkness.  That darkness had these characteristics
      • Blindness
      • Subjected to Satan
      • Charged with sin
      • No inheritance

What believers are delivered unto

  • delivered from and translated into
  • A soul is not only saved out of something but saved unto something else.
  • Kingdom of his dear Son
    • At this present time that kingdom is spiritual in nature, otherwise known as the kingdom of God.  The physical presence of God is not on earth yet, but the Spirit of the kingdom is here.
    • When the Lord Jesus Christ returns it will be both spiritual and physical; kingdom of heaven describes the physical characteristics of Christ’s kingdom.
    • Described in the covenants and judgments.
    • Ephesians 2:8-10 …created in Christ Jesus unto good works…
    • 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Scriptures are what God uses to equip you to good works.
    • Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
    • Ephesians 4:24-32