The Rescue

September 18, 2016 (061110)  Notes Not Edited

The Rescue

Colossians 1:3-14

It was about six years ago.  We all saw the headlines:  Thousand Oaks Teenager Lost At Sea.  Then, a few days later after a massive search we read the headline:  Thousand Oaks Teen Rescued.

A California teenager, Abby Sunderland spent three days adrift on the turbulent Indian Ocean in her attempt to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world.  She described her ordeal as “crazy” as she started a long journey home aboard a French fishing boat that rescued her from her crippled sailboat.

The rescue would end up costing France and Australia hundreds of thousands of dollars.  According to Maritime law, the nations closest must bear the cost of the rescue – no matter how costly that rescue might be, and even if it is only one person.  That’s the code of the sea.

Today we are going to examine what the Bible says about another daring rescue.  This is a rescue far more expensive than the one for the Thousand Oaks Teen.  This rescue was for the whole human race and it cost God the death of His Only Begotten Son.  Let’s  read that passage together:

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our_^a_ behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you_^b_ to share in the inheritance of the saints 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,_^c_ the forgiveness of sins.

The key verse in this passage is verse 13.  I’ll repeat it for emphasis:

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.

The word translated, “rescued,” is a synonym for the word meaning, “saved.”  The word usually referring to our salvation is the word, “sozo,” and it has a broad theological application referring to what it means to be “born-again,” or “saved from one’s sins.”  The word “sozo” includes the entire experience of salvation:  freedom from the penalty or our past sins, freedom from the power of our present sins, and ultimately freedom from the very presence of sin in heaven.

In this passage, Paul chooses to identify some specific benefits of salvation and chooses an entirely different word.  This word, ruomai, comes from an European root.  It was sometimes used to refer to rocks put around a grave to protect the grave, both in a physical sense and spiritual sense.

Ruomai focuses on the present application of our salvation experience.  You might say sozo focuses on the big picture and rhuomai decribes the details.  It is more complicated than that, but that is the general idea.

So, what specifically are we recued (rhuomai) from by the forgiveness provided by Jesus Christ?   When the blood of Jesus is applied to our lives on our behalf, just exactly what does that deliver us from – besides the ultimate punishment of going to hell when we die?  Here’s at least a partial list provided for us by the Apostle Paul to the church at Colossae.

1.  God Rescues Us from Despair by giving us HOPE (v5a)

⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel.

Paul liked to link three great virtues together:  “faith, hope, and love.”  In 1Corinthians 13 he ends this most beautiful expose on love with these words:

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

In that passage Paul puts the emphasis on love, which is the eternally supreme virtue.  He does not discount love in Colossians 1, but he puts an emphasis on the idea of hope, by how he positions the word in the text.  Faith and love arise out of a heart filled with hope.  Faith would have no meaning and love have no cause for expression if we do not have “hope.”

Without hope, our lives are sink into the mire of despair.  Without “hope” our faith shrinks and our love evaporates.  At first despair evaporates our love for God.  Then despair evaporates our love for others.  Finally, if we are not rescued from it, despair will evaporate even our love for life.  May God help anyone who loses hope.

In the great Pre-Renaissance poem, the Divine Comedy, he speaks of three levels of post life existence:  Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paridiso.  The first part of this epic poem deals with the Inferno – or hell.  As this part of the poem opens the poet puts this description over the entrance of hell:  ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.

That’s what “hell” is:  an eternity of NO HOPE.  Through the blood of Jesus God rescues us from despair, by giving us hope.

2.  God rescues us from EMPTINESS by giving us PURPOSE, which the word calls, FRUIT.  (v 6)

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

Look at verse 10:

¹⁰ And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work.

One of the greatest selling books of all time (not counting the Bible) has been a book written by a Southern Baptist pastor named, Rick Warren.  It is entitled, “The Purpose Driven Life.”  Some have criticized this book as being too shallow or trivializing the gospel.  I think these attacks are unjustified, but that’s not my point here.  My point here is that a book on “A Purpose Driven  Life” struck a cord in the heart of the millions who purchased and read the book.  Purpose, in our text referred to as “bearing fruit” is a key need in the life of a human being.  Without some overriding – cosmic-sized – purpose for our lives, we come to a complete stop in our voyage in the Aisle of the Emptiness. 

Charlie Brown, the beloved, befuddled comic strip creation of Charles Schultz often felt the sails of his life go limp because of emptiness.  He seems to always be searching for a purpose in life.  In one comic strip Lucy was giving a philosophical treatise on life which she often did.  She said,

"Charlie Brown, life is a lot like a deck chair on a ship. Some place it so they can see where they are going. Others place it to see where they have been and some put it to see where they are."

The last caption shows Charlie with a big sigh saying, "I can't even get my chair unfolded!” There are a lot of us who can identify with Charlie Brown.

Through the blood of Jesus God delivers us from EMPTINESS by giving us purpose and causing us to “bear fruit” in our lives.

3.  God rescues us from Ignorance by giving us KNOWLEDGE (v9)

 ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Colossians is one of the “Prison” letters (along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon) written late in the apostolic period around 60 ad.  By this time there was beginning to develop a very dangerous heresy called, “Gnosticism.” 

The Greek word for knowledge is “gnosis.”  About a half century beyond Paul a whole cult would rise up called, “The Gnostics.”  Among other things these “Gnostics” taught that salvation came from having a special “knowledge” or key to life by following some strange, secret rituals.  You might make note that these “strange secret rituals” can be found in the Temple ceremony of Mormons, as well as the secret lodge meetings of the Freemasons. 

There were many heresies taught by Gnostics including one belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. You might remember this weird idea from the blockbuster Tom Hanks movie, “The DiVinci Code.”

These strange ideas were not fully developed in Paul’s day, but we can see that Paul recognized the beginnings of such heresies because of the word he chooses for “knowledge.”  He uses the Greek word, “gnosis,” just like the Gnostics would later use the term, but Paul puts a twist on the word.  Paul adds the preposition “epi” meaning “upon or above” to show that knowledge of God through our surrender to Christ and acceptance of His forgiveness gives us “super-knowledge,” or knowledge that transcends human understanding alone.

Notice Paul reinforces this idea of “super-knowledge” by adding to it the ideas of “wisdom and understanding.” 

IF YOU HEAR NOTHING ELSE THIS MORNING HEAR THIS:  It is not possible to be delivered from ignorance through education that is not solidly based upon God’s Word with the purpose of changing one’s character not only challenging one’s mind.  REPEAT.

The Bible from beginning to end supports the proposition given to us by the Wisest Man Who Ever Lived, Solomon:

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Prv. 9:7

A person with a Ph.D. who has not surrendered his life and soul to God is nothing more than an “educated idiot.”  Giving a person facts without developing one’s character is like giving a loaded gun to a toddler.  Sooner or later, even a toddler will hit the trigger and the result is likely to be very bad.  God rescues us from the folly of ignorance by giving us KNOWLEDGE.

4.  God delivers us from impotence by giving us POWER (11a)

¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,

Do you ever feel powerless against the circumstances of life?  Be honest.  At some point or other we all feel like the little Dutch Boy with our finger in the hole in the dam hoping the dam won’t break and wash us out of life.

At one point or other, we all feel impotent – without power.  Here’s how one person describes the feeling of impotence we all have sometimes:

You stand by a body bag which contains all that is left of your son. You watch your home and your hopes erode under your feet, and there is nothing you can do but let them go. You are betrayed by people you trusted. You see your nation hell bent on trying to solve poverty around the world with tanks and bombers. The earth shakes and you are powerless to stop it. The stars fall from heaven and the sea foams and everything comes loose.

The reality is this:  we as human being control relatively nothing of any great importance.  We cannot control the stock market from crashing and erasing our life’s savings over night.  We cannot control a drunk driver from running a red light and snuffing out the life of a loved one.  We cannot control disease from invading our body and taking our life.  We control relatively little of great importance.  This realization could lead to “impotence” in our lives if we are not rescued from it.

This verse erases any doubt that God’s rescue delivers us from impotence.  In this one verse Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, uses three synonyms for “power.”  Two come from the root, dunamis, and one from the word, kratos, which was a word used by the ancient Greek poet, Homer, to describe, “the strength of iron.”  Let me give my paraphrase of this verse from the original language and see if can feel the kind of power that comes from trusting in God.  Here’s a paraphrase of verse 11:

“May you be empowered with all power according to the iron fist of God.”

Friends, when the circumstances of life zap your strength and leave you like and impotent invalid lying helplessly on the sidewalk of life, remember that God has rescued you from impotence by giving you power through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let’s review what we have learned about the effects of being rescued by God through the blood of Jesus Christ in which we have forgiveness for our sins.  God rescues us from despair by giving us HOPE.  God rescues us from emptiness by causing us to bear FRUIT.  God rescues us from ignorance by giving us KNOWLEDGE.  God rescues us from impotence by giving us POWER. 

5.  God rescues us from SORROW by giving us JOY.  (11b)

¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, WITH JOY.

I get sad sometimes.  Here I’m not talking about sadness over any particular circumstances.  My hope, sense of purpose, knowledge of God and His Word, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit usually gets me past difficult circumstances.  Yet, sometimes I just feel sad. 

Lately, thoughts of my Dad’s death make me sad.  I look at his picture and realize I can’t call him or my mom on the phone.  I can’t hear his or her voice.  I just get sad. 

Sometimes, I learn of one of our children in our school – particularly in the preschool – that has a tough life, and it makes me sad.  Sometimes I’ll be praying through the pews and think of a church member that is having a tough time, and it makes me sad. 

Sometimes, I just feel sad and I don’t really know why.

I want to testify this morning that in these moments God rushes in and rescues me from sorrow by giving me JOY!  Joy’s a hard thing to describe, but I know it when it happens.

The best I can describe what happens when God rescues our spirit from sorrow is to borrow from a 1960’s hit by the, The "Supremes"

Whenever you are near I hear a symphony //A tender melody//Pulling me closer // Closer to your arms

Joy is a deep feeling of well-being brought one by realizing the Presence of God Almighty in your life.  God rescues us from sorrow by giving us joy through the blood of his son Jesus Christ and the realization of the forgiveness of our sins.

HOPE.  FRUITFULNESS.  KNOWLEDGE. POWER. JOY.  These are the effects or results that come about when God rescues our soul through the blood of his son, Jesus Christ.  There is one more effect in our life as a result of God’s rescue of our soul:

6.  God rescues us from PRIDE by receiving our THANKS (v12)

¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

Pride has been called, “The Father of All Sins.”  I think this is true.  It was pride that caused Lucifer to rebel against God with a third of the angels.  It was pride that caused Adam and Even to eat of the forbidden fruit in hopes of becoming like God.  It was pride that brought David low by the act of adultery and murder because he forgot that it was God who had made him king, and not something he had done.  It was the pride of a nation that sent them into exile for 70 years in a foreign land.  It was the pride of the Pharisees and religious groups that caused them to rebel against the Lord.  It was the pride of Pilate that caused him to send an innocent man to death.  It is pride that keeps a person from bowing one’s knee and surrendering to Jesus Christ as the Lord of life.

As the Word says, “It is pride that goes before the fall.”

Thankfulness is the antidote for pride.  After we have considered all the glorious benefits that accrue to the account of our life as a result of God’s rescue:  hope, purpose, knowledge, power, and joy.  You add these virtues up and you describe what Jesus meant when He said,

“I’ve come to give you life and life
filled up to the full.”  (John 10:10)

Here’s the danger:  when we start thinking that we have come by these benefits through some work of our own, we are in danger of watching our lives sink into the deep waters of self-righteousness.

Thankfulness causes us to acknowledge that it is:

“the Father, who has qualified you to share in the

inheritance of the saints” (v. 12)

Unless God undertakes to rescue us:  we are lost and without hope, without purpose, without knowledge, without power, and without joy.  So, give God all the glory and be truly thankful.

I do not suppose that I will ever need to call on France or Australia to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to rescue me from the sea.  But,  I do need God to rescue me by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ from the penalty and privations of my sins. 

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.

Let’s Pray.