Good morning and welcome in today. Today we are going to take a look at some scripture from the book of Colossians.
Col 1 20-23
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;
First of all, the Lord Jesus died on the cross to take our sins away so that we could have forgiveness with God. Ift teaches in verse 20 that he made peace through the blood of his cross. Peace is no more war or fighting. It’s an agreement to end a war.
We can have peace with God but we need to come to the cross of Christ and confess our sins unto him.
2nd Thessalonians 3:16
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.
Without Christ and his forgiveness, people are still in a state of enmity with God because of their own wicked works and their sinful conscience.
It’s like the old saying, Know Jesus Know peace. No Jesus No peace.
Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
1st Corinthians 14:33
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
The Lord Jesus extends to us peace through the blood of his cross.
Hebrews 9:12
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
1st Peter 1:18-19
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Romans 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The Lord Jesus reconciles all things unto himself.
Let’s look at the definition of the word reconcile.
It means to restore friendly relationships between two people or to make up with others. Lastly it means to re-establish a close relationship as in a marriage.
2nd Corinthians 5:18-20
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
The Lord Jesus through the cross, reunites us with God. We can be in a relationship with Him once again. The ministry of reconciliation is about bringing people back together again.
Matthew 5:23-24
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
God wants us to reconcile with others because Jesus reconciles us to the heavenly father. If there was was no reconciliation through forgiveness, we would have no relationship with God the father right now.
Reconciliation has to do with bringing two together who have been separated. Reconciliation is about continuing on with the relationship that you had with someone else in the past. Everything is forgotten and it’s like nothing is even happened. That is forgiveness found in Christ. I guarantee you that is not the forgiveness that you find out in the world.
It’s about continuing on with the friendship that you’ve had in the past.
The Lord Jesus reaches out to the world with one hand and reaches out to God the Father with the other and He joins us back together through his grace and mercy . Reconciliation is shown in the parable of the Prodigal Son when the dad reconciles the son unto himself by simply forgiving him.
The son confessed his faults and sins and the dad completely forgave them.
God wants to forgive us. In the church, God wants us to be very forgiving with each other. When somebody sins against you it hurts, but Jesus took the nails for the entire world. He still forgives us when we confess our faults no matter how much the world hurt him. That is the truest love I’ve ever known.
Verse 21 continues…
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
Sin alienates us and causes us to become enemies of God in our own minds. If you are alienated, it means you’re experiencing or inducing feelings of isolation or estrangement. Being alienated or estranged is to make unfriendly, hostile or indifferent especially where attachment formerly existed.
When you are estranged to others it means that you are unfriendly or hostile or are in a state of mutual enmity or indifference.
These things happen in our own minds because of our own sinfulness. We are estranged from God the Father because of sin. Sin causes us to become alienated and enemies in our own minds by our sinful living and the things that we have done wrong, but through Christ Jesus we have forgiveness so that we can be in a renewed relationship with God the Father once again.
Reconciliation to God is immediate after forgiveness.
I’ve always said the past, if there was no reconciliation, then there was never truly forgiveness. Reconcilliation is the direct result of forgiveness. It’s like buying an ice cream cone and going out on a hot day and immediately eating it. Reconciliation is like how you see lightning in a thunderstorm and then it is followed by thunder.
True forgiveness will remove all the bitterness and resentment that you hold in your heart towards somebody else.
When you forgive others from your heart, you will rejoin in the relationship that you have had with them in the past as though nothing even happened.
So again we can have this relationship with God through Christ Jesus and what he did for us at the cross. He reconciles us in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.
God is so forgiving with us that when we confess our sins he completely forgets our past. He casts. our sin behind him. They are thrown into the depths of the sea.
He presents us holy because we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are unblamable because he has forgiven us. Unreproveable because he forgets all of our past misdeeds.
What we need to do is continue in the faith grounded and settled.
If you continue to do something it means to persist in an activity or a process. It means to go on or to keep moving forward in some course or action. It means to keep going without stopping.
Some synonyms for the word continue are to abide, endure to last and to persist.
John 15:5
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
We need to continue in the faith grounded and settled.
When we are grounded and settled it means that we completely believe what the scriptures teach. We believe without any kind of hesitation or doubt the truth about God’s mercy and grace towards us. When you are grounded in your faith it means you are completely confident and trust Christ.
We want to be like a tree that is really well rooted in the ground. The tree roots go deep down into the ground seeking for water. Our roots grow down deep into the teachings of scripture.
In order to become unblameable in God’s sight we have to continue in our faith grounded and settled there’s no turning back. We don’t want to be moved away from the hope of the Gospel that we have heard.
When we have hope it’s a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope is a Christian virtue that we are supposed to abide in.
1st Cor 13:13
..and now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity.
Hope is also a feeling of trust or when we want something to happen and to be the case.
Another definition says to expect with confidence. Hope is an optimistic state of mind based on an expectation of something positive that’s going to happen. It means to cherish and desire with anticipation.
The Apostle teaches here to not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel. We can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need and that’s why Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven. He just wants us to confess and admit our faults so that someday he can present us holy and unblameable in his sight. Then he expects us to forgive and reconcile with others.
He transforms sinners into Saints by his blessed mercy. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ for his kindness toward this world.
Be reconciled unto God. It’s time to come home to him.
And that’s where we’re going to stop for right now but Lord willing we will talk to you some more tomorrow till then bye-bye everybody.
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 