Intro:

How do you respond to the devil’s attacks?

Martin Luther said the devil came to him every night “to dispute with him.” Luther said he learned two things would chase the devil away. One was to say, “Satan, I am baptized. I have left your wilderness. You have no more jurisdiction.”

The other way — and I’m not sure how else to say this — was to pass gas. Luther believed that because the devil was proud and hated mockery, passing gas in his face was a way of mocking him and making Satan flee. I kid you not.  

Baptism follows salvation and to Martin Luther he was clinging to his salvation when the devil attacked him. Baptism sealed the deal for Luther. Baptism tangibly represents the intangible.

Where would you be without Jesus? What would your life like without Jesus?

Does your salvation give you hope for eternity?

What do you think about at funerals? Does your salvation give you hope when you think about death?

Does your salvation give you answers?

I have a thank-you card in my hand, do any of you send thank-you cards? Do any of you receive thank-you cards? Do any of you say thank-you?

Now, what are you thankful for? Food, clothing, shelter, children, family, friends, work, retirement, money, our country, etc.

When you thank God, do you thank Him for your salvation?

Theme:

Today we will look at Colossians 1:12-14 and talk about thankfulness for salvation. 

Read with me Colossians 1:12-14:

and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1. In Col. 1:12-13 we see God’s great rescue mission.
   1. I know verse 12 starts midsentence. Paul is in the middle of one long sentence. Paul was the master of long sentence. This sentence starts in verse 9 and is an extended sentence with 218 words. So, verses 9-20 are one long sentence in the Greek.
   2. This is a prayer that Paul is praying.
   3. These three verses are about giving thanks to God for our salvation.
   4. The NIV says “Joyful” thanks.
   5. God has qualified us, you, to share in the inheritance.
   6. Who qualified you? God qualified you. Only Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-10 says that we are saved by grace.
   7. We give thanks for gifts and our salvation is a free gift.
   8. We don’t have to give thanks for what we earn. We give thanks for gifts.
   9. Psalm 51:12 says to restore to me the “joy” of your salvation. Do you ever ask God for that restored joy? I think that joy would cause us to be thankful.
   10. We have an inheritance in Christ. We are considered sons and daughters of God. We are family. (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:5) We have an inheritance in Heaven.
   11. We are part of the Light, as opposed to darkness which was a common contrast which Paul would use.
   12. Our salvation was God’s great rescue mission.
   13. Verse 13 says that God rescued us from darkness.
   14. Think about a rescue. This makes me think of a good action movie going to rescue someone.
   15. In the Patriot Mel Gibson’ character rescued prisoners by outwitting the British
   16. Maybe show clip
   17. God outwitted the devil and rescued us.
   18. We aren’t simply rescued from darkness and left wondering. No, we are transferred to the Kingdom of Jesus.
   19. Verse 14 says that He redeemed us and this means that He bought us, just like you buy a slave.
   20. Verse 14 says that we also are forgiven.
   21. So, ae you thankful for your salvation?
   22. John Macarthur shares:
   23. First Chronicles 16:23, Psalm 96:2says, “Proclaim the good tidings of His salvation day to day. Way back in 1 Chronicles, way back in the Psalms, people were proclaiming on a daily basis the good news of the salvation of God. That has always been the greatest preoccupation of the people of God, to praise Him for salvation. Revelation 7, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb,” that’s heaven. All the beings in heaven are praising God and the Lamb for salvation.
   24. So we can say it is the theme of the Holy Spirit’s revelation…the theme of the Holy Spirit’s revelation. I will simplify the Bible for you. The main theme in the Bible is salvation, right? That’s the theme of the Bible. It goes from corruption to salvation, from the Fall to eternal glory. The theme of the Bible is salvation and so it is the theme of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. Everything that the prophets in the Old Testament knew about salvation was given to them by the Holy Spirit. They…verse 11 says that they were prophesying of the grace that would come because the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating, was communicating, predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories that followed. The Holy Spirit was revealing the sufferings of Christ in Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, Zechariah 12, Zechariah 13. The Holy Spirit was revealing all of this, the sufferings, death, trial, beating, crucifixion and the glories to follow. The Holy Spirit revealed truth about the resurrection, the ascension, the enthronement. The resurrection, obviously, implied everywhere that the Messiah is seen reigning because if He dies, He has to rise to reign. The resurrection in Psalm 16, the resurrection in Psalm 22, the resurrection in Psalm 69, the resurrection, exaltation of Christ, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53, the end of the chapter, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Zechariah 2, Zechariah 14. They were prophesying about His suffering and about His glory because that was the message of the Holy Spirit. Those two things were the theme of Old Testament prophecy.
   25. Are we thankful?

Conclusion:

I have a long rope up here. This rope represents time. Our life is just a small part of time. James says just a vapor in James 4:14. But eternity is forever. But we only usually focus on our life now, not on eternity. How do we find out about eternity? We find out about eternity through the Bible. The Bible teaches us about our salvation which is effective for all eternity.

Are we thankful?

In your bulletin there is space for you to write a thank-you prayer to God. Write this out as if you are writing a thank you card to God. You are thanking Him for your salvation.

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)