Week Two | "Rescued" | "All That Matters"

Lesson 2—Rescued

Colossians 1:9-14

In Christ, we are rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:13).

I. Pray Without Ceasing (v. 9)

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Ephesians 1:15-23

Paul’s prayer moves from thanksgiving to intercession for the Colossian believers.

II. Knowledge of His Will (v. 9)

“The word fill means to control. To be filled with something (an emotion like fear or jealousy) means to be under its controlling influence that causes us to do things we might not do otherwise. Being controlled by God’s will should cause us to do things we might not otherwise do—things like enduring rather than giving up, like being patient with othersrather than getting angry with them” (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, Max Anders, Logos).

“For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even
the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of
God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining
spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:10-14).

“Spiritual understanding includes wisdom: the acquisition of knowledge and the application of that knowledge to a specific concern. It, therefore, consists in the ability to ‘act and think spiritually’” (The New American Commentary, Richard R. Melick, Jr., Logos).

III. Walk Worthy (v. 10-12)

“One of the first commands from God was given to Abraham who was told to ‘walk before me and be blameless’ (Genesis 17:1). From that time, the term ‘walk’ became synonymous with obedience to the grace of God. Paul’s purpose was clearly ethical rather than intellectual; it related to character more than to abstract thought” (The New American Commentary, Richard R. Melick, Jr., Logos).

A. Please Him in all respects –

1. Fruit

Bearing fruit in every good work

Ephesians 2:10

2. Growth

“Nevertheless, those who belong to Christ can and do please God (cf. Romans12:1–2; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:1). God looks on his new (albeit as yet incomplete) creation and declares it to be very good. This explanation is supported by another oblique allusion to Genesis 1. Just as the gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so God’s people are themselves bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God (the Greek verbs are the same as those in v. 6)” (Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary, N.T. Wright, Logos).

“Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).

Obedience in the work of God brings further revelation of God.

3. Endurance

“Steadfastness and patience” - In circumstances and with people

4. Gratitude

“Joyously giving thanks”

A. To the Father who has qualified us

B. Share in the inheritance of the saints in light

IV. Our Inheritance (v. 12-14)

“The first reason for thanksgiving is that the Colossians have been given a share in the new exodus, the deliverance of the true people of God—the God, that is, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light” (Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary, N.T. Wright, Logos).

There are many spiritual parallels with the Exodus from Egypt:

G. Ernest Wright sees Colossians 1:13-14 as a deliberate use of the Exodus pattern to express the reality of Christian salvation. It reads: God “has rescued us out of the tyrannical authority of darkness and changed us so as to bring us under the rightful rulership of his beloved son in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (my translation). In this passage, Paul “summarizes the Sacred Era in a single sentence. First, Redemption from bondage, followed by ‘translation’ (the journey to the Promised Land), then consecration by the remission of sins, and finally the kingdom of ‘David’ (the ‘Beloved’); the pattern is complete. This ‘kingdom’ in Christ is the Inheritance of the saints in light” (Wright, p. 63, Retrieved from https://preachingsource.com/journal/the- new-and-greater-exodus-the-exodus-pattern-in-the-new-testament/).

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